After a six-year hiatus from 2012 to 2017, the Valencia Festival of Medeteranian Cinema returned in 2018 with a retrospective program dedicated to the Palestinian cinema, and with the Egyptian feature Between Two Seas by director Anas Tolba competing in the official competition. This year, in its 34th edition, the festival dedicated a special program in celebration of Egyptian female directors titled;The Women Revolution in Egyptian Cinema.

The program featured; Hala Khalil’s Nawra and Cut and Paste; Kamla Abu Zikri’s One-Zero and A Day for Women, Nadine Khan’s Chaos, Disorder, Mariam Abu Ouf’s Bibo and Bashir, Aiten Amin’s Villa 69, Hala Lotfy’s Coming Forth by Day, Marian Khoury’s Women Who Loved Cinema and 18 Days; a movie that was co-directed by Kamla Abu Zikri and Mariam Abu Ouf among others.

Egyptian Actress and GFF’s Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Bushra Rozza was chosen as a jury member among other prestigious names like; Algerian Director and Writer Sofia Djama, Palestenian Director Muayad Alayan, and Spanish Researcher and Curator Julia Sabina Gutierrez.

In addition; the festival held a roundtable discussion titled The Revolution of Women in The Egyptian Cinema with Hala Khalil, Amal Ramsis, Kamel Abu Zekri, Nadine Khan and Maryam Abu Auf and moderated by Awatef Ketiti, Professor of Gender Policy in the University of Valencia.

The Valencia Festival of Medeteranian Cinema focuses on strengthening the cinematic bonds of Mediterranean countries and believes that screening these films for the first time in Spain, despite the large number of film festivals in the country, indicates that more light should be shed on the Arab cinema.