India all over India is the guest of honour at the 33rd Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) running through 20 November. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, India's Vice-Minister for Information and Broadcasting Raghu Menon, as well as the CIFF President Ezzat Abu Ouf jointly inaugurated the festival at the Cairo Opera House. Around 25 Indian films will be screened during the festival. The opening film was New York produced by Indian film production company Yashraj Films and directed by Kabir Khan. The Indian film selected for the competition is Madholal Keep Walking by Jai Tank. The film selected for the digital section is Mudhal, Mudhal, Mudhal Varai (First Time) directed by Krishna Seshadri Gomatam. There will be a retrospective of the films of Indian director Madhur Bhandarkar. More than 10 films will be shown in the special Indian panorama. A seminar on Indian films is also being organised by the CIFF. Anart Dance Ensemble, which specialises in a fusion of classical Kathak dance and contemporary dance, led by Maulik Shah and Ishira Parikh, featured the opening ceremony of the festival. Around 30 leading Bollywood cinema figures -- including actors, directors and producers -- are expected to participate in the CIFF. This includes Adoor Gopalakrishnan, eminent film director and the chairperson of the international jury; Sridevi, film star of more than 300 films; Boney Kapoor, producer of several successful Hindi films; Madhur Bhandarkar, talented film director; actor Irrfan Khan, who acted in Slumdog Millionaire ; Vikas Swarup, author of novel Q&A on which Slumdog Millionaire was based, who will be member of the digital jury, as well as young directors Kabir Khan, Jai Tank and Krishna Seshadri Gomatam. Gorgeous actress Celina Jaitley will be present for the closing ceremony. photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid � Commemorating Italian National Unity and Armed Forces Day, Italian Ambassador to Egypt Claudio Pacifico, Defence Attaché Maurizio De Giovanni, Assistant Air Attaché Federico Giannitrapani, along with Assistant Army Attaché Franco Merlino held a reception party at the Manial Palace Museum. Among the guests were Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Hani Hilal, Minister of Family and Population Mushira Khattab, head of the Italian-Egyptian Friendship Association Nehad Abdel-Latif as well as director of the Cairo Opera House Abdel-Moneim Kamel. � United States First Lady Michelle Obama presented the 2009 "Coming Up Taller" award to the Egyptian organisation Alwan wa Awtar (Colours and Strings) and 19 other youth programmes from the United States, China and Mexico. The ceremony took place at the White House. "These awards remind us of what the power of arts and music and dance can do in the lives of our young people," said Mrs Obama, the honorary chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), which sponsors the Coming Up Taller awards in partnership with three federal agencies. Mrs Obama told representatives from Alwan wa Awtar and the other recipients, "Each of your programmes is using achievement in the arts as a bridge to achievement in life. You help [participants] see beyond the circumstances of their lives to the world of possibility that awaits them. And for that, we honour you." Recipients of the Coming Up Taller Awards, the nation's honour for afterschool arts and humanities programmes for deserving children, receive $10,000 each. Alwan wa Awtar was established in 2005 and offers youth in Muqattam art workshops and field trips to museums, concerts and exchange programmes, and tries to inspire them to embark on their own voyages of artistic self- discovery. The PCAH works primarily with the White House, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to connect the people of the United States with each other and with the rest of the world through dance, music, literature, painting, sculpture, and heritage and cultural tourism. � World-renowned archaeologist, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass along with the grandsons of Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the great grandson of Lord Carnarvon, who sponsored Carter 's excavation, were spotted during the opening ceremony of the Carter Rest House located in Luxor on the West Bank. � President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen has bestowed upon the diligent director of the Cairo Opera House, Abdel-Moneim Kamel, Finland's prestigious Order of Merit, "The White Flower", for his relentless efforts in reinforcing the cultural and artistic exchange between Finland and Egypt. � In honour of former Lebanese minister of social affairs Laila Al-Solh, the Lebanese Solidarity Association held a prestigious dinner banquet at the Semiramis Hotel Cleopatra Hall. The ceremony was crowned by the presence of Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Meselhi, Lebanese Minister of Tourism Elie Marouni, actors Hussein Fahmi, Lebleba, Rania Youssef, Nahla Salama, Hisham Abdel-Hamid, Nelly, retired belly dancer Nagwa Fouad and Lebanese actress Madline Tabar. � The American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham Egypt) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted the first "Egyptian Business Summit on Climate Change", which took place at the Semiramis InterContinental. A number of distinguished international experts took part with the aim of raising awareness and exposing companies to best practices on this important subject. Foremost among those attending was environmental activist and former US Vice-President Al Gore, founder and chair of the "Alliance for Climate Protection", who delivered the keynote address. Commemorating the summit, the Semiramis launched an "Environmental Week", bringing into focus the importance of conservation. Activities included a "Clean up Campaign" in Downtown Cairo and inviting renowned acting legend Omar Sharif to join Semiramis InterContinental General Manager Jurgen Baumhoff and employees in planting a tree in the hotel garden dedicated to the people of Cairo. "The Environmental Week is just one element of our ongoing environment strategy. With the help of all employees and the Association for the Protection of the Environment we will continue to promote recycling, waste management and planting trees, as well as striving to further reduce our own carbon footprint day in, day out across every area of our business," said Baumhoff. � Congratulations! Professor Ali Hadi, AUC's vice-provost, director of graduate studies and research, and director of the Actuarial Science Programme, was elected editor-in-chief of the International Statistical Review (ISR), a flagship journal that provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the field of statistics. Hadi obtained his PhD in statistics and computer information systems from New York University in 1984. The recipient of numerous awards and honours, including AUC's Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavour Award, Hadi is a Stephen H Weiss presidential fellow and professor emeritus and former chairman of the Department of Social Statistics at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labour Relations. � Head of the Afro-Asian Lawyers Federation for Human Rights Esmat El-Merghany travelled two days ago to Paris to participate in the 11th annual International Summit on Transnational Crime with a paper on the violation of labour rights. The summit is to be attended by a plethora of presidents, ministers, ambassadors and university professors from Albania, Macedonia, France, Mozambique, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Nigeria and Canada. � Under the theme "Innovative Media in a Changing Middle East", the American University in Cairo recently hosted the 14th annual Arab-US Association for Communication Educators Conference (AUSACE), organised by AUC's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. The main objective of the conference was to provide a forum for communication educators, students and media professionals throughout the Middle East, the United States and the rest of the world to discuss the innovation of media and its ongoing, but often uneven, impact on a changing region. AUSACE was attended by a large number of media academics and scholars from different Egyptian and Arab institutions, including AUC and Cairo, Ain Shams, Sohag, Kuwait, Lebanese, Sharjah and Algeria universities. It was also attended by media professors from the United States, Europe and Asia, including Douglas Boyd of the University of Kentucky, Philip Seib of the University of Southern California, M D Lawrence of the University of Poona, India and Mohamed Al-Nawawy, Queen University, USA. Tonight, mesmerising Nubian pop singer Mohamed Mounir and Algerian star Cheb Khaled will rock the stage at Akhbar Al-Yom Academy in 6 October governorate with a thrilling performance. The concert, that unites two of the most influential arts figures in their countries, aims at underlining the strong cultural relations between the two nations on the occasion of the expectedly controversial football match between Egypt and Algeria due 14 November at Cairo Stadium. The dynamic duo will jointly perform a number of new songs specifically composed for this concert in addition to their old hits.
