Every year, the El Gouna Film Festival gives space for Egyptian filmmakers to share their stories with the world. This year’s lineup is full of variety — from family dramas and social struggles to personal documentaries and romance. Here’s a look at six Egyptian films making their mark at the festival.
Happy Birthday – Sarah Goher
Opening the 8th edition of El Gouna Film Festival is Happy Birthday, directed by Sarah Goher and co-written and produced with her husband, Mohamed Diab. The film stars Nelly Karim, Hanan Motawea, and Doha Ramadan.
It tells the moving story of Toha, an eight-year-old child maid whose deep bond with her employer’s daughter, Nelly, drives the narrative. Having never celebrated her own birthday, Toha channels all her energy into organizing the perfect party for Nelly, secretly longing for a celebration of her own.
A touching exploration of childhood, inequality, and the universal desire to belong, Happy Birthday has already made waves on the international stage. At the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, it won Best International Feature, Best International Script, and Best Female Director, cementing Goher’s place as one of Egypt’s boldest new voices in cinema.
My Father’s Scent – Mohamed Siam
This one dives deep into the messy, complicated bond between fathers and sons. Set in a single apartment, My Father’s Scent isn’t just about family arguments — it’s about patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and how appearances can hold families hostage. At its core, it asks: if you had one last night with someone you lost, would you argue or forgive?
With stars like Ahmed Malek, Kamal El Basha, Donia Maher, and Mayan El Sayed, the film already turned heads at Final Cut in Venice, a workshop and platform for films in post-production that runs during the Venice Biennale. There, it scooped up five awards before making its way into El Gouna’s feature narrative competition.
Al Mosta’mera (The Settlement) – Mohamed Rashad
The Settlement tells the story of Hossam, who steps into his late father’s factory job in Alexandria to keep his family afloat. But life gets tougher when his younger brother Maro insists on tagging along, leaving school behind for hard labor. As they struggle to fit in and survive, another tragedy strikes, shaking everything Hossam has tried to hold together.
It’s raw, heartbreaking, and a real look at the struggles many families face — a worthy entry in the festival’s feature narrative competition.
50 Meters – Yomna Khattab
Sometimes, the simplest setting holds the biggest emotions. In her debut documentary, Yomna Khattab takes us to a Cairo swimming pool, where she turns the camera on her own father. What starts as a way to spend more time with him grows into a touching exploration of love, mortality, and the things left unsaid between parent and child.
50 Meters is competing in the feature documentary competition, and it’s proof that you don’t need grand gestures to tell a moving story — sometimes, less really is more.
Life After Siham – Namir Abdel Messeeh
When filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh lost his mother, he turned to cinema as a way to keep her memory alive. In Life After Siham, he uses film to “resurrect” her and, in the process, rediscovers how powerful storytelling can be when it comes to grief and love.
Shot between Egypt and France, the film feels like a personal diary mixed with the spirit of Youssef Chahine’s cinema. It premiered earlier this year at ACID Cannes, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival that highlights daring, unconventional films. Now, it joins El Gouna’s feature documentary competition.
Love Imagined – Sarah Rozik
For a change of pace, Sarah Rozik’s Love Imagined (W Lana Fel Khayal… Hob?) brings romance to the lineup. The story follows a university professor whose quiet life is turned upside down when a student pulls him into her complicated love life. Before long, he’s caught between her, her lover, and his own unexpected feelings.
Starring Ahmed ElSaadany, Mayan El Sayed, and Omar Rozik, the film is part of El Gouna’s official selection but screens out of competition.
Wrapping Up
This year’s Egyptian selection at El Gouna shows just how wide-ranging the country’s cinema has become. From Sarah Goher’s award-winning Happy Birthday to Siam’s exploration of masculinity, Rashad’s portrait of factory life, Khattab’s intimate debut, Abdel Messeeh’s meditation on loss, and Rozik’s tale of romance, the six films together showcase the bold new directions of Egyptian storytelling.
They prove that, whether tackling inequality, grief, identity, or love, Egyptian filmmakers are creating stories that resonate far beyond their own borders.
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