Egyptian Short Film Wins Palme D’Or at Cannes

Entertainment

October 31st, 12:50pm

Cairo - Mona Issam

Director Sameh Alaa with the award.

“I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face” has won the top prize at the Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Egyptian film to win the coveted award. Eleven films, from France, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Mongolia, Portugal, Greece, Canada and the United States were nominated for the award. After being postponed in May due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers held a downscaled version. The films were screened outdoors, and the festival ran for just three days. The Egyptian Cinema Professions Syndicate hailed the win on its Facebook page on Thursday evening, calling it a significant victory for short films. The 15-minute film tells the story of Adam, a man trying to return to his girlfriend after leaving for 82 days, facing many challenges on the way. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, the film’s producer, Mohammad Taymour, expressed his delight at the victory: “It didn’t expect the movie to win the award, especially after competing with 11 movies from different countries.” He considered it “a culmination of the effort put into bringing this film to light, amid and overcome the difficulties we faced while producing and filming for over a year and a half.” Filmed in downtown Cairo in just three days, the film was produced by Mark Lotfy and Mohamed Taymour. Scriptwriter Mohamed Fawzy developed the film, the second ever directed by Sameh Alaa. While this is time an Egyptian film takes the prize, the late great Egyptian director Youssef Chahine won the Palme D'Or for his distinguished career in 1997.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2597406/egyptian-short-film-wins-palme-d%E2%80%99or-cannes