Second Edition of Aswan International Women Film Festival Will Be Held This February
The AIWFF is set to be held from Feb 20 to Feb 28 and will feature the German-Austrian movie “Looking for Um Kulthum” that is dedicated to Algerian heroine Gamila Abu Hereid to screen at the opening. The festival will be moderated by Writer Azza Kamel and will include seminars on issues and problems of women in Aswan, round table discussions about women and cinema, and programs for women with disabilities in the Egyptian cinema. The Festival will also be recognizing Actress Mona Zaki for her roles supporting strong women.
The festival will have an Aswan Youth workshop for training the youth to document the sites that are nominated for outdoor filming. They will film the artistic locations in order to present them for the Abou-Simbel Producer Salon as a platform for all planned production to come to Egypt and will be coordinated by Sayed Ali.
There will also be a Producers’ Salon held to think of the benefits of the Egyptian film industry and to market filming across Egypt. They aim at studying its positive impact on the economy and how it affect Egypt’s tourism. The salon will be managed by producer Hesham Soliman.
The first AIWFF was held in February 2017, and was arranged by movie stars and famed writers such as Elham Shahin and Mohamed Abdel Khalek, as well as Egyptian and international directors. AIWFF kicked off with a total of 31 films, four of which are Egyptian. The films representing Egypt included the award-winning movie Akhdar Yabes, and short films Shaimaa, Alia, and Sandooq El-Donia. Bringing the festival to an end was French-Italian biopic Dalida, which chronicled the life of the Egyptian-Italian singer and actress. The festival recognized Romanian Actress Cristina Flutur, winner of the Cannes Award for Best Actress in 2012.
The festival is organized by the official NGO holding the name of the festival, it is a non-profit corporation functioning under the Egyptian law. The festival is sponsored directly by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, and approved by the Supreme Committee of festivals. In addition, it operates on cooperation and partnership with the National Council for Women and the province of Aswan protocol.
“Looking for Um Kulthum” is a movie that rotates around the story of an artist who starts her path hoping to imitate the the and music of the Legend Um Kalthoum. It connects what women have to strive for, sacrifice, and face in order to reach their dreams in closed sexist societies
