THE 20th ALEXANDRIA Film Festival (8-14 September) enlisted the help of Afaq Al-Fann Al-Sabi (Horizons of the Seventh Art), the Alexandria-based film society, for the first time in its history this year. Society chairman Sami Helmi coordinated with the administration of the Sidi Gaber Cultural Centre and the Creativity Centre downtown, the two venues in which discussions and screenings were taking place, to organise fringe events and seek out new means of interaction. To boost audience participation, free invitations were issued to Alexandria University students and members of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In addition, theatre managers were consulted as to the times and venues that would draw in the largest possible audience, hence the late-night shows at high-end cinemas in Miami, Montazah and Maamoura; but downtown cinemas preferred the guaranteed profit of Arabic box-office hits, which they had been screening through the summer. On the whole writer and critic , the head of the festival this year, lamented the dwindling numbers of festival movie-goers, many of whom, he said, tended to wait for word-of- mouth confirmation of any one film's merit before taking the trouble to go and see it. Such scepticism notwithstanding, this year's programme -- put together by veteran critic Ahmed El-Hadari, the festival's honourary president -- proved typical of the Alexandria Festival: almost all the films on show had already been screened and they were not always of the best quality. The films are far from old, however, Tawfiq insists, pointing out that festival regulations only allow the screening of films released within two years of the opening. The choice of a film to represent Egypt was among the most difficult challenges facing the Writers' and Critics' Association, which organises the Alexandria Film Festival, because many Egyptian filmmakers refuse to complete their films until the last minute before their commercial release. Finally Mohamed El- Qalyoubi's Kharif Adam (Adam's Autumn), which was in the official competition of the 2002 Cairo Film Festival but was never released in movie theatres, was chosen. During an inaugural conference attended by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Mamdouh El-Leithi, head of the Association and Tawfiq, in a scene that has recurred at the beginning of every round of the festival, disconcerted cineastes yelled complaints at Hosni, with one established critic summing up the most prevalent point of contention, "The minister is an artist, he's been painting the same rosy picture for 20 years. Cinema just is not a priority for the Culture Ministry." Honoured were veteran actors Nour El-Sherif and Mervat Amin, extra Fayza Abdel-Gawwad and cinematographer Said Shimi, who is also on the official competition jury, as well as critic Khairiya El-Bishlawi, French scriptwriter-director Yves Boisset and writer-critic Alain Riou, Spanish director Augustin Villoranga, Syrian director Mohamed Malas, and Tunisian director Nawfel Saheb-Ettaba. The closing ceremony saw Alexandria Governor Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, El-Leithi and Tawfiq handing out awards. The Moroccan filmmaker Mohamed Asli's Al- Malaika la Tuhaliq Fawq Samaa Al-Dar Al-Baidaa (Over Casablanca, Angels don't Fly) won first prize, while both the jury and best-actor awards went to the Bosnian film Fuse. Spanish scriptwriter-director Ramon de Espana won the best script award for Haz conmigo 10 que quieras (Kill Me Softly), while the Italian filmmaker Giancarlo Bocchi won the best-director award for Nema Problema (No Problem). Best debut went to Tunisian director Mohamed Damaq for Dar Al-Nas (The People's Home), and the Serbian film Jagoda v Supermarket (Jagoda in the Supermarket) won the best score award.
