The 42nd Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff) has kicked off.
Stars of Arab cinema headed to Cairo Opera House last night for the cinematic celebration's glitzy (although toned down) opening ceremony, which saw actresses Mona Zaki, Dorra Zarrouk and Yasmine Sabri don their red-carpet best for the occasion. Zaki was also honoured with the Faten Hamama Excellence Award, named after the revered Egyptian actress, for an outstanding career in cinema.
Achievement awards have also gone to Egyptian author and scriptwriter Wahid Hamed and British playwright, screenwriter and director Christopher Hampton.
The film festival will run until Thursday, December 10, after having been pushed back two weeks to ensure safety measures were put in place according to the guidelines approved by the Egyptian government and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The event will operate at 50 per cent capacity. In addition, seats will be sanitised after every screening. The organisers are ushering in stricter precautions for all red carpet screenings, such as testing all staff and members of the press 48 hours before the start of the festival. As for guests, Ciff is setting up a medical assistance unit at the hotel where stars will be staying.
This year’s festival will show 84 films from 43 countries, boasting 33 Mena premieres, all scheduled to screen across a number of venues in Cairo.
With almost half of the total number of films that were screened last year, and under strict safety procedures, the team behind Ciff said they were keen for the show to go on. “The most important thing for us was for the festival to continue, for the sake of filmmakers,” said festival president Mohamed Hefzy.
