Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Culture Min Launches 21st Edition of Ismailia Film Festival


Sun 14 Apr 2019 | 03:45 PM
Ali Abu Dashish

Dr. Inas Abdel-Dayem, Minister of Culture and Major General Hamdi Osman, Governor of Ismailia, inaugurated the 21 Edition of Ismailia International Festival of Documentary And Short Films.

The occasion was dedicated to the late director Attiyat El-Aboudi and its activities started on 10 and will run till 16 April at the Ismailia Culture Palace.

The ceremony was attended by Mhab Mamesh, Chairman of Suez Canal Authority, Dr. Khaled Abdel Jalil, Head of the National Cinema Center, critic Issam Zakaria, the president of the festival, a number of popular and executive leaders in the governorate, public figures, artists, critics and officials from the Ministry of Culture.

Abdel-Dayem affirmed that Egypt is linked with the world through Suez Canal. Thus, Ismailia International Festival for documentary and short films is another way of building bridges of communication with the different countries.

This edition coincides with Egypt celebration of African Union presidency and the celebrations of Egypt – France year. The festival attached importance to two sections, one for the films of African countries and the other for French movies to celebrate the two occasions.

The minister also thanked all those who contributed to the preparation of this edition .

On his part, Major General Hamdi Osman said that Ismailia Festival for documentary and short films carries important cultural and artistic messages that bring together many countries of the world in one of the precious parts of Egypt- Ismailia, which is currently witnessing great interest embodied in mega projects and huge investments.

Afterwards, the minister honored three figures of documentary and short film industry:- Lebanese director Burhan Alawiya – delivered to his son Najib Ashkar, Muizi Najangura (Congo) and cinematographer Said Shimi (Egypt).

The opening ceremony, which was presented by the great artist Samir Sabry and directed by Hisham Attouh. It included presentation of a short film with scenes of the most important works participating in this edition. It was followed by presentation of an operetta "A Message of Peace from the Turquoise land" performed by the young singer Yahya Yaqoub.

The operetta was attended by Massad Fouda, director Omar Abdel Aziz, Dr. Hisham Abdel Khalek, Dr. Ashraf Zaki, Head of the Academy of Arts, Dr. Ahmed Awwad, Head of the General Organization of Culture Palaces.

It is worthy of note that this edition includes the participation of 150 films from 51 foreign and Arab countries.