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 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Paul Andrew Williams (UK), Renovation [+lee también:
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entrevista: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
ficha de la película] by Gabrielė Urbonaitė (Lithuania/Latvia/Belgium) and Zafzifa by Peter Sant (Malta); and Calle Malaga [+lee también:
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entrevista: Maryam Touzani
ficha de la película] by Maryam Touzani (Morocco/France/Spain/Germany/Belgium), Exile [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Mehdi Hmili (Tunisia/Luxembourg/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia), Once Upon a Time in Gaza [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tarzan Nasser
ficha de la película] by Tarzan and Arab Nasser (France/Palestine/UK/Germany/Portugal/Qatar/Jordan), The Silent Run by Marta Bergman (Belgium/Canada), The Things You Kill [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alireza Khatami
ficha de la película] by Alireza Khatami (Turkey/Canada/France/Poland) and Death Does Not Exist [+lee también:
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entrevista: Félix Dufour-Laperrière
ficha de la película] 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 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tim Ellrich
ficha de la película] by Tim Ellrich (Germany), The Odyssey of Joy by Zgjim Terziqi (Kosovo/France), Reedland [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Sven Bresser (Netherlands/Belgium), Siblings [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Greta Scarano (Italy) and That Summer in Paris [+lee también:
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entrevista: Valentine Cadic
ficha de la película] by Valentine Cadic (France), as well as the European co-productions Do You Love Me [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lana Daher
ficha de la película] 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Agnieszka Holland
ficha de la película] (Czech Republic/Germany/Poland/France), Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Romania/Brazil/Switzerland/UK/Luxembourg), Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Christian Petzold
ficha de la película] (Germany), Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ildikó Enyedi
ficha de la película] (Germany/France/Hungary), Dominik Moll’s Case 137 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Dominik Moll
ficha de la película] (France) and Andrea Di Stefano’s My Tennis Maestro [+lee también:
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entrevista: Andrea Di Stefano
ficha de la película] (Italy), as well as Gabriel Mascaro’s The Blue Trail [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands) and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab [+lee también:
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entrevista: Kaouther Ben Hania
ficha de la película] (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.