Preparing for its third edition which takes place between 20 and 26 February 2019, the management of the Aswan International Women's Film Festival revealed that Hala Galal was chosen as the fetival's Artistic Director and Marwa Abdalla as Director of the Short Film Program. Egyptian director and producer Hala Galal was born in 1966 and graduated from the Higher Institute of Cinema and the Faculty of Media at Cairo University. She directed several documentary films, including Women's Chitchat (2004), for which she received a silver award for best documentary at the 4th Arab Film Festival, Rotterdam 2005. Galal also directed Time Out (video, 1993), The Cities Choose Her Death (1994), Unusual Garden (1999), Journey (Bahaa Taher's Journey, 2000), People's Affairs (2001). She also produced a number of films, including Colors of Love directed by Ahmad Ghanem; The Door directed by Abdel-Fattah Kamal; Beirut Take-1 directed by Ahmad Rashwan. Galal is a co-founder and executive director of SEMAT Production & Distribution company. She has been among the panelists of several conferences focusing on film industry uch as in Berlinale 2008, and a judge in a number of film festivals: the Ismailia International Festival for Documentary and Short films (2004 & 2008), and the International Festival of Audiovisual Program, FIPA, Biarritz, France (2007). According to the festival's organisers Hala Galal is the first woman to be assigned a post of an artistic director in Egypt's festivals history. Hala Galal (Photo: courtesy of the Aswan International Women's Film Festival) The management of the Aswan International Women's Film Festival also announced Marwa Abdalla as Director of the Short Film Program.
An academic and researcher, Abdalla specializes in film studies. She received her doctorate in cinema from the Faculty of Media at Cairo University. Abdulla has been working in the field of film programming since 2006, and has taught at the Radio and Television Department at the Faculty of Media at Beni Suef University since 2015.
Marwa Abdalla (Photo: courtesy of the Aswan International Women's Film Festival) Organized with the support of the Ministries of Culture and Tourism and supported by the National Council for Women and the Syndicate of Cinematographers, the third edition of Aswan International Women's Film Festival will take place between 20 and 26 February 2019.
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