Every year for the past four editions, El Gouna Film Festival continues to celebrate its GFF Alumni as they score more accolades and recognition worldwide; a token of pride that the festival’s program always combines the finest and most recognized cinematic productions.
This year, a total of 15 GFF alumni were selected to represent their countries for the Best International Film category of the 2021 Oscars. This follows last year’s submissions, where 13 films from GFF’s 2019 competition were submitted to the Academy, including 8 feature films, 4 of which were officially nominated; Parasite, Corpus Christi, Les Misérables, and Pain and Glory.
Moreover, Parasie made history by earning 4 Academy Awards (including best picture) out of 6 nominations and becoming the first South Korean film to receive this recognition.
The films selected to represent Arab countries at the 93rd Academy Awards; from GFF 2019’s Feature Narrative Competition is Amjad Abu Alala’ debut feature, and winner of El Gouna Golden Star for Feature Film, You Will Die at Twenty which is selected to represent Sudan, marking Sudan’s first time to compete for the Academy Awards. While from the Official Selection out of Competition of the same year and selected to represent Egypt is Tamer Ezzat’s When We Are Born.