Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival Heads Vow Rescheduled Edition Will Go Ahead Amid Israel-Gaza Crisis With Some Digital Elements & Toned Down Red Carpet
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The co-heads of Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, which was rescheduled at the eleventh hour this week due to the Israel-Gaza crisis, have vowed that the event will go ahead in some shape or form.
The festival, unfolding in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of El Gouna, was on the cusp of opening its sixth edition this Friday when the management team announced Tuesday that it was postponing the event to new dates running from October 27 to November 2.
More from Deadline
More than 120 cinema talents had been confirmed to attend including Bosnian Quo Vadis, Aida? director Jasmila Zbanic as the main jury president, French director and producer Luc Besson with Dogman, Italian animator Enzo d’Alo with A Greyhound Of A Girl; Indian director Anurag Kashyap with Kennedy, Ukrainian filmmaker Maryna Vroda with Stepne and Sudan’s Mohamed Kordofani with his Best International Feature Film submission Goodbye Julia.
“The situation, of course, is not very reassuring at all but the intention here is to have the festival from the 27th in any form,” said incoming artistic director Marianne Khoury.
“Yesterday was a very, very hard day but I think this morning there is rethinking about this whole thing where you really have to adapt to situations like this. We already had this experience with Covid, where you had to reimagine how festivals were done… We were ready to go, all the activities were there and it’s very tough because the context is also much more serious.”
The decision to delay the festival came just three days after a deadly attack out of Gaza by Hamas militants on southern Israel in which at least 1,200 Israelis were killed. Israel has retaliated with a full siege of Gaza and heavy bombardments of the densely populated Palestinian territory, which had killed just over 1,000 people by early Wednesday morning.
GFF Artistic Director Marianne Khoury, Director Intishal Al Tamimi
Festival director Intishal Al Tamimi said that the edition would have a more serious tone but that the team were convinced it should still go ahead, even with the shadow of the Israel-Gaza crisis in the backdrop.
“The key message from us is that a festival is not only about celebrity and entertainment. A festival also plays a serious role. It’s about supporting culture and art. That’s our big message to the international community,” he said.
Respected Egyptian producer, distributor and exhibitor Khoury is overseeing her inaugural edition in the role of artistic director this year.
“We might not be able to do all the activities we wanted to do – we might do a few things online – but that’s the intention. The whole the team is here in El Gouna for the coming two weeks to keep working and keep the momentum going until the 27th,” she said.
Launched in 2017, the festival is a mix a program of MENA premieres of recent festival hits from around the world and closer to home; an industry program aimed at nurturing emerging talent from across the Arab world, and outrageously glitzy red carpets which are broadcast to millions of viewers across the region.
Khoury said there had already been discussions around how to handle the red carpet this year.
“It’s been discussed, and it will definitely be toned down… there will be more the industry which was already one of the big focuses this year,” she said.
She noted that the festival’s entire CineGouna Platform industry program – which features the CineGouna SpringBoard development and co-production lab and CineGouna Bridge talks forum – will be hosted at El Gouna’s newly-enlarged Festival Plaza venue.
“It’s a gigantic site, one and a half times the size it used to be and where all the activities we’re doing will take place,” said Khoury.
The projects due to be presented at the Springboard lab this year include Ramallah-based director Amer Shomali’s hybrid drama Theft of Fire about a struggling artist on a mission to steal back a collection of stolen Palestinian archaeological artefacts. Khoury said some of the pitches may now be done virtually for film teams no longer able to travel to Egypt.
The festival team is now scrambling to ascertain which of the original guests will still be available and willing to travel to El Gouna for the revised dates.
The Red Sea resort is not geographically close to Egypt’s border but tensions are running high throughout the region. On Sunday, an Egyptian policeman shot dead two Israeli tourists and a local tour-guide in a lone wolf attack.
The U.S. State Department issued a regional security alert on October 8 saying the region is unpredictable due to the situation in Israel and advised U.S. citizens to “take caution” when travelling there.
The UK Foreign Office and France’s Foreign Ministry issued similar travel advice.
All three countries advise against visiting the northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on the border with Gaza but there are no such advisories for the country’s Red Sea coast which lies some 500 kilometres to the south. Travellers are advised to check the latest advice before travelling.
Al Tamimi said the postponed sixth edition had the full backing of Orascom Development, the property development holding which built and manages El Gouna, as well as the group’s CEO Samih Sawiris, who co-founded the film festival with his brother Naguib Sawiris.
“They have assured us of any help we need to keep the festival running and to help with accommodation and logistics as much as they can,” he said.
A revised program and list of attendees will be issued in the coming days.
Best of Deadline
SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements: Full List Of Movies And TV Series
2023 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
