Hesham Maged to Be Honored at 5th Hollywood Arab Film Festival

Egyptian actor and screenwriter Hesham Maged will be honored at this year’s Hollywood Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles, which runs April 17–20.

He will accept the festival’s Artistic Excellence Award at the closing ceremony of its upcoming 5th edition and present his latest film, "Pershama".

The cast also includes Riham Abdel Ghafour, Bassem Samra, Mostafa Gharieb, Hatem Salah, Arefa Abdul Rasoul, and more.

It boldly tackles the issue of cheating in exams, a known phenomenon around the world.

The synopsis reads: "In a high school exam, the supervisor dies mid-test, and the students try to hide it… hoping to cheat. Only problem? Nobody knows the answers. Among the chaos are a top student obsessed with being proper, the mayor’s hopelessly dumb son who must pass at any cost, a dancer chasing a diploma to work abroad, a sixty-year-old woman chasing a pension boost, and a former criminal desperate to pass so he can marry. Absurd schemes, nonstop chaos, and wild laughs turn this exam into a hilarious disaster.

Khaled Diab directs the pic from a script he co-wrote with Sherine Diab and Ahmed El-Zaghbi.

Ahmed El Desouky produced the project alongside SkyLimit Studio, Film Square Productions, and Big Time Fund.

Founded in 2022, HAFF is born right at the heart of Hollywood City, to provide Arab and North African filmmakers with the opportunity to gather, create, and showcase their work.

The festival seeks to introduce world cinema professionals to the Arab film industry, shedding light on its uniqueness and distinction.

It also aims at discussing the challenges facing the industry and ways to develop it.

In recognition of the region’s wealth in the film industry, HAFF aims to create a platform through which Western audiences can directly meet with Arab filmmakers to learn more about their cultural identity and the issues they are facing.