El Gouna Film Festival awards Golden Star to Safe Exit

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival wrapped its ninth edition Friday after nine days of screenings, industry activity and a closing night that spread its top prizes across the Middle East and beyond.

Safe Exit Wins Golden Star for Best Narrative Feature

Mohammed Hammad’s psychological drama Safe Exit, which follows a young Coptic security guard in Cairo confronting trauma rooted in religious violence, secured the festival’s top narrative prize, the Golden Star. Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama, focusing on a Gaza photojournalist balancing work and family life amid war, claimed both the Golden Star for documentary and best Arab documentary. Additional winners included Anders Davidsen’s Stolen Memories taking the short film Golden Star, Rakan Mayasi’s Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep winning best Arab narrative, and Marie Rose Ousta’s One Day Born earning best Arab short. Rakeen Saad won best actress for Zaid Abu Hamdan’s Boomah, while Jovan Ginić received best actor for Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After.

CineGouna Industry Platform Expands Its Regional Footprint

Festival organizers underscored a deliberate shift toward industry development during the nine-day event. We want the industry to be our hero, El Gouna co-founder and executive director Amr Mansi told Variety ahead of the festival. More than 320 projects applied to CineGouna Funding, resulting in 19 selected projects receiving more than $350,000 across 40 awards. Participants also engaged in more than 140 one-on-one meetings with companies, institutions, and international festivals. The platform now encompasses Funding, Forum, Market, Emerge, the Egyptian Voices development program, and an inaugural Series lab.

Arab Television Faces Development Deadlock Due to Limited Platforms

The newly introduced CineGouna Series development lab exposed a wider structural vulnerability across Arab television, where abundant creative talent meets a scarcity of buyers. Screenwriter and producer Mariam Naoum, who spearheaded the six-week lab, told Variety that the region features great, great talents but only three or four platforms, forcing creators into fierce competition for limited outlets. Producer and screenwriter Haitham Dabbour added that fewer platforms foster buyer caution, while director Mariam Abou Ouf warned that the business is approaching a deadlock.

Safe Harbour MENA Addresses Displaced Filmmaking Realities

War and displacement continued to dictate production conditions across the Arab world, prompting the launch of Safe Harbour MENA in partnership with the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the International Emerging Film Talent Association. The initiative brought four displaced filmmakers into a program focused on training, project development, and networking. The support system aims to provide professional connections necessary to sustain careers rather than merely offering a platform to recount displacement. The necessity of such programs was highlighted by the double win of Citizen Osama, whose director, Ahmed Hassouna, remains in Gaza.

Cinema on Wheels Extends Screenings Beyond the Red Sea Resort

To counter its setting in an affluent Red Sea resort, the festival launched Cinema on Wheels to carry three short films from this year’s lineup on a free screening tour. The tour travels through Hurghada, Minya, Qena, Luxor, and Aswan before concluding in Cairo with audience discussions. Cinema on Wheels is our way of connecting El Gouna to the rest of the country, Amr Mansi explained to Variety, mirroring artistic director Andrew Mohsen’s stated goal to expand the festival’s geographical reach past the town of El Gouna.