El Gouna Film Festival Announces Return after One-Year Hiatus

El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), one of the leading film festivals in the MENA region, will be back in 2023 after a one-year hiatus.

The event will return for a sixth edition from October 13 to 20 at El Gouna Resort-town in the Red Sea governorate.

Meanwhile, the activities of the CineGouna Platform will take place October 15 to 19.

The future of the festival had looked uncertain over the summer following the cancellation of its 2022 edition in the wake of a difficult fifth edition.

The break allowed GFF’s management to reflect on the artistic and organizational aspects of the festival and focus on consolidating the role GFF has played so far in the development of the film industry regionally and internationally.

The event will be held as before under the patronage of El Gouna Founder, Engineer Samih Sawiris, and will be presented by Orascom Development, with the support of Festival Founder, Engineer Naguib Sawiris.

GFF also announced that festival Co-Founder and Entrepreneur Amr Mansi, who played a pivotal role in the establishment and success of GFF, will be its new Executive Director.

Mansi succeeds Amal El Masri, who served as the festival’s Executive Director during the 4th and 5th editions.

Launched in 2017, the event was founded by Engineer Naguib Sawiris, in collaboration with actress and producer Bushra Rozza; CEO of I-Events Amr Mansi, and film producer Kamal Zadeh. The initiative gained strength and momentum with the support of El Gouna founder Engineer Samih Sawiris and Orascom Development.

The GFF team is helmed by festival director Intishal Al Timimi, who brings to the festival his knowledge and understanding of the regional and international cinematic landscape.

For the past five years, GFF has established its reputation as one of the leading film festivals in the Arab world dedicated to discovering the hidden talents in the region’s filmmaking industry, giving new voices a platform, helping Arab cinema to reach an international audience as well as underscoring the role cinema plays in promoting cultural interaction, highlight the awareness of different cinematic voices through encouraging dialogue and building bridges of creative intellect.