CineGouna Funding distributed more than $350,000 in services and cash to various film projects this year. More than 320 Arab film projects submitted applications for the funding cycle, including over 100 submissions from Egypt.
A total of 40 awards were granted to 16 of the 19 projects that participated in the program. Rama Abdy received a $15,000 CineGouna Platform Award for the documentary “House No. 7”, while Zoulikha Tahar won a $15,000 award for “Paradise Beach”.
Marwa Zein was granted a €10,000 grant for “Lily’s Makkah”, which also included an invitation to Durban FilmMart and post-production support. Participating projects conducted more than 140 one-on-one meetings during the funding period.
The CineGouna Emerge program has hosted more than 300 participants, with this year's cohort representing 16 different nationalities. Egyptians from 20 of the country's 27 governorates were included in the Emerge program.
One woman from Upper Egypt secured one of two university scholarships to study cinema in Cairo, while Asmahan Bakirat was chosen for the Rising Stars program. Karim Kassem won a Red Sea post-production award for the film “Pipes”.
The CineGouna Forum featured a session titled “Producing Against the Odds” with May Odeh, who has four films at the festival including “Safe Exit” and “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep”. Ahmed Shawky stated, “There are three big gaps in the Arab world,” and noted that Egypt lacks a national film fund.
Shawky said he sees the next step as strengthening CineGouna’s international presence and developing more year-round activity.
