The opening and closing ceremonies of the 26th Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries, hosted by the Alexandria Opera House, will be held from 14-19 September at the Sayyed Darwish Theater in Alexandria. The festival will be attended by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and Alexandria Governor Adel Labib. During the opening ceremony there will be a screening of the Egyptian film "Al-Mosafer" (The Traveler) starring Omar Sherif and Sireen Abd al-Noor. The film was directed by Dr. Ahmed Maher and was previously screened at the Venice Film Festival. Sixteen countries are participating in the festival this year, including Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine, Lebanon, Croatia, France, Turkey, Slovenia, Greece, Spain, Albania, Italy, Bosnia, and a co-production from Luxembourg and Austria. The 16 countries are contributing 50 films, 13 of them international films, including "Bonjour" (France), "Building Manager" (Greece), "Frigate" (Algeria), "The Black" (Croatia), "A Step Towards Peace" (Turkey), "Woman with No Piano" (Spain), and "White Space" (Italy). Three films discussing women's issues will be shown at the Women's Film Panorama, including "Two Girls from Egypt," "Tell your Stories, Sheherazade," and "One-Zero." The festival's panel of judges is composed of actress Leila Alwi (Egypt) as chairman, actor Hisham Selim (Egypt), director Mufida al-Tlatli (Tunisia), and Greek Film Center Head George Papanios. The nearly 100 critics and journalists of the Egyptian Society for Film Writers and Critics will vote for the 10 best Egyptian films of the past 10 years. The top three films will be awarded LE100,000 by the Federation of Radio and Television. The festival will honor Egyptian actors Najla Fathi and Jamil Ratib, director Ali Badrakhan, scriptwriter Mustafa Moharam, director of photography Mahmoud Abd al-Samea, critic Iris Nazmi, and writer Hasan Shah. International honorees include author Robert Soleil (France), Syrian Culture Minister Riad Agha, director Fufida al-Tlatli (Tunisia), producer Tarak Ben Ammar (Tunisia), director Carlos Saura (Spain), and director of photography Vittorio Storaro (Italy). Translated from the Arabic Edition.
