Cairo, Egypt;  March, 2017 – Kicking off its activities ahead of El Gouna Film Festival’s second edition which is set to take place from the 20th – 28th of September 2018, CineGouna Platform gave out an award at Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) to Dead Dog by Sarah Francis, guaranteeing the film to be automatically selected as part of CineGouna Springboard’s official selection.
As part of the CineGouna Platform which aims to nurture and support the most promising talents of Egyptian and Arab cinema, the CineGouna Springboard is the project development and co-production lab, where El Gouna Film Festival offers an opportunity to find creative and financial support for Arab film directors and producers with films in development or works-in-progress.

“El Gouna Film Festival aims to support Arab filmmakers and Arab cinema through CineGouna platform;   therefore we are excited to be supporting Beirut Cinema Platform through this award” said El Gouna Film Festival Director Intishal Al Tamimi.

Sarah Francis grew up in Beirut and graduated from IESAV at Saint Joseph University. Since 2005, she has worked as a freelance director and has participated in several workshops and labs. Her feature-length documentary ‘Birds of September’ (2013) screened at numerous international festivals and museums, and won several awards. Her work also includes short videos. She is currently developing a project with the support of the Asian Cinema Fund. With ‘Dead Dog’, her upcoming fiction project, she was a participant of Cinephilia Bound in collaboration with La Maison des scénaristes at the Festival de Cannes in 2017, and is also attending other major film labs.