Program Highlights

The official lineup of the inaugural edition of GFF included MENA premieres of some of the highly acclaimed films of the year: winner of the 2017 Palme d’or The Square; 2017 Berlinale Silver Bear winners Other Side of Hope and Felicity. Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film category The Insult,  for which actor Kamel El Basha received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 2017 Venice Film Festival; winner of Best Feature Film at the Locarno Film Festival Scary Mother; winner of the FIPRESCI award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival Closeness, Son of Sofia, winner of Best Foreign Film at the Tribeca Film Festival. From Egypt, Amr Salama’s Sheikh Jackson and Tamer Ashri’s Photocopy.

In the 2nd edition a number of internationally acclaimed films were screened ​including: Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters​;​ Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War, winner of the Best Director award at Cannes; the Italian drama Dogman by Matteo Garrone, whose lead star, Marcello Fonte, received Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival; winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival, Happy as Lazzaro; Mug, winner of the Berlinale’s Silver Bear award; The Heiresses, directed by Marcelo Martinessi and winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlinale; Sundance Film Festival winner of Best Documentary Of Fathers and Sons directed by Syrian filmmaker, Talal Derki; and from Egypt A.B Shawky’s Yomeddine, winner of the Francoise Chalais prize at the 71st Cannes Film Festival; and Karim Shenawy’s Gunshot.


Line-up of the 3rd edition included the highly acclaimed film Parasite, which broke all the award records; Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Feature Film at the 69th Berlinale; winners of the 72nd Cannes Jury prize Bacurau by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles and Les Misérables, Ladj Ly’s explosive first feature. Another highly acclaimed and multi-award winner was Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, starring Antonio Banderas, winner of the Best Actor at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival; and The Father, winner of the Crystal Globe at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.


The 4th edition included Josep by Aurel, winner of Best Animated Feature at the 46th C ésar Awards; Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg winner of Best Foreign Film at the 46th César Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Golden Globes and won Best Film Not In The English Language at the 76th BAFTA. Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, and Jasmila Zbanic’s Quo Vadis, Aida? which were shortlisted for the Best International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards, with Another Round announced as the winner.

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