12/10/2026 - The Egyptian gathering will showcase 145 films from 64 countries from 11-20 November, including 12 titles that will vie for the Golden Pyramid in the International Competition

From Afghanistan to Uruguay: 145 films from across the globe – 109 fiction features, 17 documentaries and 29 shorts – make up the line-up of the 47th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), unspooling from 11-20 November. And the impressive stats don’t stop there: there will be 17 world, five international and 87 MENA premieres, while 31 European countries will be represented at the Egyptian gathering.

Nine out of the 12 International Competition titles were either made in Europe or co-produced with at least one European country. The hopeful dozen that will be contending for the Golden Pyramid, the festival’s grand prix, are Al Baraneya (Egypt/Netherlands/Belgium/Saudi Arabia) by Ashgan El-Hamus, BerleeN_ (Egypt/Germany) by Ahmad Abdalla, Four Minus Three (Austria/Germany) by Adrian Goiginger, Heysel 85 (Belgium/Netherlands/Germany) by Teodora Ana Mihai, In the Darkness I See You (Lebanon/Qatar/France) by Nadim Tabet, Inherited (Iran) by Morteza Alizadeh, Love Is the Monster (Costa Rica/Peru/Panama/Chile/Mexico) by Neto Villalobos Brenes, Strawberries (Morocco/France/Spain/Belgium) by Laila Marrakchi, The Ballet Lesson (Japan) by Kazuya Murayama, The Green Eyes (France/Belgium/Sweden) by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, Words of Love (France) by Rudi Rosenberg, and Yugo Goes to America (Serbia/Croatia) by Filip Grujić and Aleksa Borković. Some of these titles were previously screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard (Strawberries and Words of Love), at Berlin (Four Minus Three) and at Locarno (The Green Eyes). Besides the International Competition, other competitive sections include the Short Film Competition, the Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition, the International Critics’ Week Competition and the Best Feature Documentary Competition. The Best Arab Film Award jury and the FIPRESCI jury are also set to give out their laurels.

Commenting on this year’s selection, Mohammed Tarek, the artistic director of CIFF, stated, “Our focus [is] on the new generations, in the guise of today's audiences and tomorrow's filmmakers.”

Recent works by more established filmmakers and festival darlings can be discovered in the Official Selection Out of Competition strand, including Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur (France/UK/Latvia), Emin Alper’s Salvation (Turkey/France/Netherlands/Greece/Sweden/Saudi Arabia), Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure (Germany), Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster (Austria/Germany/France/Sweden), Giuseppe Tornatore’s Brunello: The Gracious Visionary (Italy) and Milcho Manchevski’s Sister Brother Manhole Cover (North Macedonia/Bulgaria/Serbia/Albania/UK/Italy).

The sections presenting new films will be complemented by two classical sidebars. Midnight Classics will showcase Cat People by Jacques Tourneur (USA) and David Lynch’s Lost Highway (France/USA). On the other hand, Egyptian Restored Classics will feature 27 cinematic gems, including works by Youssef Chahine (One Day, the Nile) and Tewfik Saleh (The Rebels).

What’s more, the upcoming edition introduces a new section dedicated to young audiences – dubbed Cairo Kids – and is expanding its XR (extended reality) programme. European filmmakers will also be celebrated in other ways at the Egyptian gathering: the Golden Pyramid Honorary Awards for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to Italian helmer Matteo Garrone alongside veteran Mauritanian and Egyptian directors Abderrahmane Sissako and Saeed Shimi, in addition to Egyptian songwriter and musician Medhat El Adl. Asser Yassin, an actor and writer based in Egypt, will receive the Faten Hamama Excellence Award. Each of them, besides Yassin, will give a special master class, and they will be joined by French director Óliver Laxe and British sound designer Paul Davis, who will also discuss their careers.