Top prizes were handed out by the CineGouna Platform (CGP) at the El Gouna Film Festival this week to projects in various stages of inception or completion. Winning a $15,000 prize for a project in development, “Theft of Fire” is Palestinian filmmaker Amer Shomali’s hybrid documentary, retelling the true story of an art heist “that never happened” to steal back antiquities pilfered from Palestinian lands by former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.
Produced by Rashid Abdelhamid, the film is in the early stages of development but has already secured Canadian co-production.
“She Was Not Alone” won the equivalent CGP Award for a film in postproduction. Produced by Huda Al Kadhimi and Huma Gupta and directed by Iraq’s Hussein Al-Asadi, the documentary gives a character portrait of Fatima, a nomad who tends for her buffalos in the poisoned marshes of Iraq as her island and way of life are threatened by the effects of climate change.
“Theft of Fire” producer Rashid Abdelhamid
Courtesy of El Gouna Film Festival
$10,000 was granted by the French/Egypt Institute to “The 4 Choices of Albert,” directed and produced by Hala Galal, with the same amount going to “A Tale of a Feather and a Fish,” directed by Ahmed El-Hawarey, produced by Hala Lotfy, awarded by Blue Bee Productions. Further substantial awards either in cash or in kind, funded and provided by sponsors, were dispensed to the projects, 19 of which – 12 in preproduction and seven in post – had been selected to participate as part of the CGP and the CineGouna Springboard.
The winners were chosen by a jury composed of Egyptian director Hala Khalil, French independent producer Guillaume De Seille and Jordanian TV and film executive and producer George David. Three mentors – Palestinian/Jordanian writer/director Najwa Najjar, French producer Marie Balducchi, and Lebanese writer, curator and consultant Chadi Zeneddine – were also on hand to offer guidance to the filmmakers.
The head of CineGouna Springboard Ahmed Shawky told Variety: “Since the festival began in 2017, we’ve had 20 projects a year and now we’re in our 6th edition that means 120 projects have come through. Only one project dropped out due to the postponement of the festival. We were the lucky department in that regard.”
Shawky pointed out the diversity of the projects. “Of the 19 project eight different Arab countries are represented: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. We have, of course, fiction and documentary and even a couple of hybrid things. We have films that are very humane and tackling very personal issues, issues, and also have some very politicized films. We are proud to have a queer project from Lebanon.”
This latter project is “So the Lovers Could Come Out Again,” a tale two snipers sharing a house at the close of the Lebanese civil war, and asking existential questions in both the literal and philosophical sense. It’s produced by Christelle Younes and directed by George Peter Barbari, a Lebanese filmmaker whose debut film “Death of a Virgin and the Sin of Not Living” was selected for the Panorama sidebar at the 2021 Berlinale.
Is the CGP competing with the emerging power of the Red Sea Film Festival?
“I would say like 99% of the situation is very beneficial for all parties. We got more submissions, because more projects are ready to submit. There are more sources for funding through the Red Sea, and if you add Neom, and if you add AlUla, you will find so many new funding sources. If you are trying to take the filmmakers position, you’ll understand their choices. For example, we had a project by Ahmed Al-Daradji, who had done ‘Hanging Gardens’ last year in Venice. He was very excited to be here, and then he got the invitation to the Red Sea Souk. He called me and I said: ‘We want your film to happen. We want you to work in the most appropriate conditions.”
“So please, if you think that going to the Red Sea is the best for you, do it and we are supportive.’ And that’s why he thanked me after getting the award in Jeddah. The only thing I see as not logical for me, is why we are competing on the pitching premiere. I used to be a programmer and I can understand that Cairo, Red Sea and El Gouna compete for having the regional premieres of the big films, but if the ultimate goal is to support films we all like, and want to be involved with, I don’t see the point of asking filmmakers that if you want to pitch in our festival, you cannot pitch elsewhere. That’s the 1% that’s not convincing.”
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