For the first time in more than a decade, the Cairo Film Festival will open for business. Now kicking off its 45th edition, the Egyptian event has remained a key cultural and artistic showcase for the region and for the wider Middle East and North Africa world – but Cairo has gone without a market […]

After going dark last year due to the war in Gaza, the Cairo Film Festival now returns with a super-sized program and a more humanist remit. Running Nov. 13 – 22, this bulked out edition aims for wider international visibility and greater attendance, all while keeping the projectors running longer than ever before. “We have […]

A 4K restoration of the 1981 film “Lion of the Desert” is to premiere at the Cairo Film Festival this week. Telling the story of Benito Mussolini’s attempt to defeat the Libyan rebellion against fascist Italian rule, the film stars Oliver Reed and Anthony Quinn and was produced and directed by Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad. […]

Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi opens the Cairo Film Festival with the world premiere of his new film “Passing Dreams” — that most unlikely of genres: the Palestinian road movie. The film tells the story of Sami (Adel Abu Ayyash), a 12-year-old living in a refugee camp in the West Bank. His father is in jail […]

Italian indie thriller “The Contract,” starring Kevin Spacey as a character named “The Devil,” is set to world premiere at the Cairo Film Festival this week, without Spacey on the red carpet in the Egyptian capital’s Opera House. In the film, Spacey plays a role that has been described in promotional materials as somewhat akin […]