Maiden Edition : Egypt Hosts Women’s Film Festival.

The task of selecting the films was assigned to Ahmed Al Hassouna, former director of the Cairo International Film Critics Week who, in cooperation with the Centro del Corto of Turin and the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, selected 4 Italian shorts to enter the contest, in addition to “L’accabadora” by Enrico Pau, in competition in the section of feature films.

The days dedicated to the Italian shorts will be presented by director Cristina Picchi, who is in Aswan to present the screening of her own film “Champ des Possibles” and to meet with the young Egyptian talents admitted to the workshops organised by the Festival.

The other films in competition for the short-film section are: “Bellissima” (“Beautiful”) by Alessandro Capitani (winner of the David di Donatello 2016 Prize); “Bagni” (“Toilets”) by Laura Luchetti, “Il Silenzio” (“Silence”) by Ali Asgari and Farnoosh Samadi.

“L’accabadora” by Enrico Pau, competing in the feature film section, is drawn from Michela Murgia’s novel and will be screened on Satureday, 25 February, in Italian with subtitles in Arabic.

The event will close with the recent film dedicated to the Italian-Egyptian artist Jolanda Gigliotti, in art Dalida, by French director Lisa Azuelos, featuring many Italian actors, including Sveva Alviti in the leading role and Riccardo Scamarcio as Luigi Tenco. Nathalie Biancheri, a young Italian director residing in London, will sit on the jury.