Celebrities React to Wahid Hamed CIFF Tribute

Today, iconic critic Tarek El Shenawy moderated an open discussion with veteran scriptwriter Wahid Hamed on Sunday. Held at Cairo Opera House, the session witnessed the presence of a huge number of celebrities who interacted with Hamed during the session such as Youssra, Laila Elwi, Elham Shahin, Mohamed El Adl, and Tamer Habib.

He started, "During the opening ceremony of the festival, I am supposed to prepare a speech! However, the crowds in the hall drove me to open my heart."

"Through my long journey, I cooperated with various icons such as Ahmed Zaki, Adel Emam, Nour El Sherief, and Farouk El Feshawy," Hamed continued.

Furthermore, he expressed that he experienced respect and gentleness. "In the past, society was full of love. The old supported the young, and the young supported the old."

The author revealed that he learned from everyone he met. "I respected every good hand I received, and I never let anyone down," Hamed said.

Regarding his relationship with his students, he revealed that he regards his students as his sons, "My Son Marwan has a lot of soul brothers and sisters in cinema field," the author explained. "When I want to feel younger, I cooperate with skilled young artists," Hamed added.

Finally, he said that he learned a lot from different people, "I was honest in every word I wrote in my career," Hamed continued.

Regarding the participation of celebrities, many stars gave short comments during the session. Prominent producer and author Mohamed El Adl expressed, "We are proud of belonging to Wahid Hamed's generation. His films answered our questions and reviewed our ideas."

On her part, actress Elham Shahin recalled her works with Hamed, "I proud of being part of your "El Baree'" (The Innocent), "El Halfoot," and the first film in Egypt to had midnight screening events "Souk El Mota'a" (The Pleasure Market)," Shahin expressed.

Actress Youssra added, "Hamed is part of Egypt, a part of the Egyptian history, and part of the Egyptian arts. You love Egypt truly and honestly."

Actress Laila Elwi reflected, "You have a valuable position in the Egyptian arts, and you succeeded in attracting the Egyptians to taste good films."

Screenwriter Atef Bishai highlighted, "Hamed is a real gem. He crafted the hard Egyptian issues in beautiful form in terms of dialogue, content, form, and tempo. He enlightened people to make them capable of facing their own problems."

On his part screenwriter Tamer Habib narrated his memories with Hamed, "He is modest and humble. His way of scripting stories drove me to be a screenwriter, I wanted to be like him."

Furthermore, editor and producer Dina Farouk expressed her memories with Hamed during editing many of his films such as "Maa'li El Wazer" (The Minister). "He always believed in young talented people and supported them. I remember every moment you supported me to be the one who I am now."

Veteran scriptwriter Wahid Hamed was honored and awarded The Golden Pyramid Prize for Life Achievement at the opening ceremony of the 42nd Cairo International Film Festival.

He sent overwhelming messages that drove the audience to shed their tears. He asserted, “Thankfully, I am here with real cinema lovers. I love Cinema adorably and loyally. I hope my films impressed you.”

He recalled various moments from his career back to the stage especially his journey with director Sherif Arafa who directed a big number of Hamed’s films.

Also, he remembered the former director of the festival Youssef Sherif Rezallah who invited Hamid for the first time to CIFF years ago.