Honoring Hussein Fahmy at the Luxor African Film Festival

Cairo – Archyde.com
The Luxor African Film Festival honored Egyptian actor Hussein Fahmy with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the opening of its eleventh session, which started on Friday evening, in southern Egypt.
After receiving the honor, Fahmy said: “Having a festival representing African cinema in this great city, Luxor, is a great thing and we are proud of it. Year after year”.
In the opening, the festival honored Algerian actress Bayouna, director Apollin Traore from Burkina Faso, and Egyptian actor Amr Saad, who was absent from the ceremony and received the honor by his son, Rabi.
The opening activities began after sunset on the banks of the Nile, in a carnival atmosphere, with the participation of the Luxor Folk Instruments Band, which accompanied the festival guests from their residence to the conference hall. Where is the ceremony.
Scriptwriter Sayed Fouad, head of the festival, said: “A second decade of the festival begins today… I feel that the festival has grown and needs bigger moves and more support.”
He added, “40% of the films this year are shown internationally for the first time, and the program is full of activities directed at the local audience, which is the biggest supporter of the festival.”
The session, which continues until March 10, raises the slogan “Rediscover Egypt.” The festival is organizing an expanded symposium within its program of activities under this title to discuss how to support and facilitate the portrayal of foreign cinematographic works in Egypt.
The festival dedicates this edition to the spirit of the Egyptian actress and singer Hoda Sultan (1925-2006), the spirit of the Egyptian actor Mahmoud Morsi (1923-2004), the spirit of the Moroccan director Mohamed Ismail (1951-2021), as well as the Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambite, whose name the session bears.
45 films are competing for prizes in four competitions: the Feature Film Competition, which includes ten films, the Short Film Competition, which includes 15 films, the Documentary Film Competition, which includes 11 films, and the Diaspora competition for films by African directors residing outside the continent, which includes nine films. .
The festival will also screen six films outside the official competition from Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Burkina Faso, in addition to five films from the latest Egyptian cinema productions.
In addition to film screenings and seminars, the festival, which is organized by the Independent Artists Youth Foundation, holds ten specialized training workshops for the people of Luxor in directing and acting, in addition to organizing three various art exhibitions.