Luxor Film Festival Unveils Features of 9th Edition

The organizers of Luxor Film Festival at a press conference held in the Tunisian pavilion at Cannes unveiled the main features of the ninth edition of LAFF.

Those who attended the conference included Sayed Fouad and Azza el-Husseiny, respectively president and executive director of LAFF.

The date is set for Friday, March 13 to Thursday, March 19, 2020. Kenya will be the guest of honor and concerned officials will focus on promising Kenyan cinema, where a generation of young filmmakers are trying to produce outstanding cinematic works.

The ninth edition is named after the late Egyptian artist "Farid Shawqi" on the occasion of his centenary birthday and to revisit his remarkable career as an actor, producer and author.

As a tradition of the festival, LAFF will be paying tribute to the names of the following actors: Sotigui Kouyaté from Mali, the actress and Egyptian singer Akila Ratib and the Tunisian producer Ahmed Bahaeddine Attia.

Luxor African film Festival under the emblem "LAFF all year long" will organize "A Youssef Chahine Day in Africa", showing his films in many African countries, simultaneously, on January 25, the date of his birthday. Round tables, debates and brochures will accompany the event in partnership with Misr International Films and Zawya.

The festival will also add a new competition this year called "African Diaspora" which will present the creations of Africans  from outside the continent; an idea of the honorary president of the 8th LAFF edition, the actor Mahmoud Hemeida.

Mohamed Keblawi, Director of the Malmö Arab Film Festival, announced the organization of "LAFF Night" to celebrate the Luxor African Film Festival in Sweden, where the award-winning films of the 8th LAFF edition will be screened. It will include the Ghanaian film "The Burial of Kojo" and the Egyptian film "Night / Exterior". During this occasion, a seminar will be held on the role played by LAFF in supporting African film industry (Sub-Saharan and North African.

A troupe of drums and an exhibition of posters and books published by LAFF will be on the program of this 9th edition of MAFF in October 2019. The directors of the Luxor African Film Festival also participated in a joint press conference at the Rome African Film Festival (RAFF) pavilion.

Antonio Flamini, artistic director of RAFF said that the cooperation continues under the protocol signed at Cannes in 2016 and that the Egyptian film "Hepta" will be the opening film of the fifth edition of RAFF next July.

The Luxor African Film Festival is organized by the non profit organization « Independent Shabab Foundation » (ISF) with the support and cooperation of the Ministries of Culture, Tourism, Youth, Foreign Affairs as well as the Governorate of Luxor and the Cinematic Professions Syndicate.