Renowned Egyptian actress Nelly Karim has been selected as a juror at this year's Venice International Film Festival. Karim will serve on the jury deciding on the winners of the festival's Orizzonti (The Horizons) section. Presided over by Robert Guédiguian, other jury members in this segment also include Jim Hoberman, Valentina Lodovini, Moon So-ri, José María (Chema) Prado, Chaitanya Tamhane. Though other Egyptian artists have participated in the past in the Venice International Film Festival's jury, Karim is the first actress selected for this role. The 37th edition of the festival, in 1980, included renowned Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine in its main competition segment. The 65th edition, which took place in 2008, was dedicated to Chahine, who passed away the same year. In 2006, the 63rd edition's jury panel included Egyptian director Yousri Nasrallah in its Orizzonti segment. Born in Alexandria in 1974 to an Egyptian father and a Russian mother, Karim began her career as a ballerina before shifting to acting in the early 2000s. She appeared in over 25 films and television series produced in Egypt. Karim won the Best Actress Award at the Cairo International Film Festival for her role in Enta Omry and a Special Award at the Cairo National Festival for Egyptian Cinema in 2010 for her role in film One-Zero, directed by Kamla Abu Zekry. A year later, she won the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards for her role in Cairo 6, 7, 8, which was directed by Mohamed Diab, followed by the Best Actress Prize for the same film at the Arab Film Festival. Karim has also been a popular Ramadan television series actress in recent years, starring in A Girl Named Zat, Segn-El-Nessa, Taht-Al-Saytara and Seqout Hor (Free Fall). Most recently, Karim starred in the film Clash (2016), also directed by Mohamed Diab. Clash premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section and has been selected to represent Egypt at the 2017 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The 73rd Venice International Film Festival opened on 31 August and will run until 10 September. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
