El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) is honored to bestow its 2021 Career Achievement Award on the Egyptian superstar, Ahmed El Saka, in recognition of his extraordinary cinematic journey and outstanding contribution to the industry during the past two decades.
The son of Salah El Saka, the pioneer of Egypt’s puppet theatre, El Saka graduated from the Higher Institute of Theatre. He started his career with minor roles before his breakthrough in the TV series Who Doesn’t Love Fatma? based on Anis Mansour’s novel; and Rabie’s Other Half, starring Yehia El Fakharany and Elham Shahine. In cinema, he rose to fame by acting alongside Mohamed Henedy in the cinematic hit A Saidi in the AUC—a movie that broke the rules by introducing what has been labeled ‘youth cinema’ to the Egyptian audience through a group of young actors, who are now the biggest celebrities on the artistic scene. It became the highest grossing movie in the history of Egyptian cinema back then and still tops the charts as the highest earning film in Egypt, to date.
El Saka is considered a trailblazer of modern action cinema in the Middle East, mostly famous for doing dangerous action sequences and performing risky stunts without a double. His repertoire includes over 11 blockbuster films, among which are Amr Arafa’s Africano, Tarek Al Arian’s Tito, Marwan Hamed’s Ibrahim El Abyad, Sandra Nashaat’s El Maslaha, as well as Sherif Arafa’s Mafia and The Island film series. His rich filmography isn’t short of successful romance films like Saeed Hamed’s Shorts, T-Shirt and a Cap and Kamla Abu Zikri’s About Love and Passion, or comedies like Amr Arafa’s The Council's Son and Ali Idris’ Father.
A yearly GFF tradition, the festival’s Career Achievement Award is reserved for influential talents across different generations whose work and commitment to the film and entertainment industry have left an indelible mark. Recent recipients include Egyptian stars Adel Emam, Mohamed Henedy and Khaled El Sawy; international stars Forest Whitaker, Sylvester Stallone, Gérard Depardieu and Saïd Taghmaoui; Egyptian director Daoud Abdelsayed, Egyptian art director Onsi Abou Seif, Tunisian filmmaker Dora Bouchoucha, and Palestenian filmmaker Mai Masri.
The 5th edition of GFF is set to take place from October 14 to 22, 2021 in the resort town of El Gouna.
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