15/10/2025 - The oldest film gathering in the MENA region will welcome European productions and co-productions, and present Hungary’s Ildikó Enyedi with the Career Achievement Award

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) is bracing for its 46th edition, which will unspool from 12-21 November. The full programme was announced at a press conference in the Egyptian capital on 12 October. “This year, we did not focus on the quantity of films; instead, we prioritised presenting each movie in the most meaningful way possible for audiences. Still, despite this selectivity, our programme features 80 feature-length films spanning a wide range of genres – fiction, documentary, animation and experimental works – coming from more than 45 countries,” says Mohamed Tarek, the newly appointed artistic director of CIFF, in a press release.

In the International Competition, which boasts the Golden Pyramid as its grand prize, 12 films will be presented, including three European titles and six co-productions with European countries. These are, respectively: Dragonfly [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Paul Andrew Williams (UK), Renovation [+see also:
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interview: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
film profile] by Gabrielė Urbonaitė (Lithuania/Latvia/Belgium) and Zafzifa by Peter Sant (Malta); and Calle Malaga [+see also:
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interview: Maryam Touzani
film profile] by Maryam Touzani (Morocco/France/Spain/Germany/Belgium), Exile [+see also:
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film profile] by Mehdi Hmili (Tunisia/Luxembourg/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia), Once Upon a Time in Gaza [+see also:
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interview: Tarzan Nasser
film profile] by Tarzan and Arab Nasser (France/Palestine/UK/Germany/Portugal/Qatar/Jordan), The Silent Run by Marta Bergman (Belgium/Canada), The Things You Kill [+see also:
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interview: Alireza Khatami
film profile] by Alireza Khatami (Turkey/Canada/France/Poland) and Death Does Not Exist [+see also:
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interview: Félix Dufour-Laperrière
film profile] by Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Canada/France). The remaining titles in the International Competition are One More Show by Mai Saad and Ahmed Eldanf (Egypt/Palestine), Sand City by Mahde Hasan (Bangladesh), and Souraya, Mon Amour by Nicolas Khoury (Lebanon/Qatar).

Additionally, European representatives are present in the parallel competitive and non-competitive sections. Azza [+see also:
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film profile] by Stefanie Brockhaus (Germany) and Flana by Zahraa Ghandour (Iraq/France/Qatar) will be presented in Horizons of Arab Cinema. In My Parent’s House [+see also:
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interview: Tim Ellrich
film profile] by Tim Ellrich (Germany), The Odyssey of Joy by Zgjim Terziqi (Kosovo/France), Reedland [+see also:
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film profile] by Sven Bresser (Netherlands/Belgium), Siblings [+see also:
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film profile] by Greta Scarano (Italy) and That Summer in Paris [+see also:
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interview: Valentine Cadic
film profile] by Valentine Cadic (France), as well as the European co-productions Do You Love Me [+see also:
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interview: Lana Daher
film profile] by Lana Daher (France/Lebanon/Germany/Qatar) and Habibi Hussein by Alex Bakri (Palestine/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Sweden), are going head to head in the Critics’ Week Official Competition.

The Out of Competition section will screen recent works by celebrated European filmmakers, including Agnieszka Holland’s Franz [+see also:
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interview: Agnieszka Holland
film profile] (Czech Republic/Germany/Poland/France), Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 [+see also:
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film profile] (Romania/Brazil/Switzerland/UK/Luxembourg), Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 [+see also:
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interview: Christian Petzold
film profile] (Germany), Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend [+see also:
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interview: Ildikó Enyedi
film profile] (Germany/France/Hungary), Dominik Moll’s Case 137 [+see also:
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interview: Dominik Moll
film profile] (France) and Andrea Di Stefano’s My Tennis Maestro [+see also:
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interview: Andrea Di Stefano
film profile] (Italy), as well as Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail [+see also:
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film profile] (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands) and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab [+see also:
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interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile] (Tunisia/France).

Furthermore, the presence of Europe is discernible in other ways at the Egyptian gathering. The Career Achievement Award will be presented to Ildikó Enyedi, as well as to Palestinian actress-writer-director Hiam Abbas and three Egyptian artists: thesp Khaled El Nabawy, cinematographer Mahmoud Abdel Samie and director Mohamed Abdel Aziz. The International Competition jury, headed up by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, includes a couple of Europeans (Romanian helmer and scribe Bogdan Muresanu, and Italian editor Simona Paggi) as well as Egyptian actress Basma, and directors Guan Hu from China and Leyla Bouzid from Tunisia.