Press fails to come up with pertinent questions for panel CAIRO: Just hours before the 30th Cairo International Film Festival kicks off, festival President Ezzat Abo Ouf held a joint press conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel last Sunday with Naguib Sawiris, the CEO of the festival s principal sponsor Mobinil, to answer all the press s inquiries for a final time. Astonishingly, the press failed to conduct a proper intelligent discourse, leaving Sawiris, Abo Ouf and Vice President Sohier Abdel Kader to answer redundant questions they d already replied to on several previous occasions. The conference started with Sawiris announcing an agreement conducted with an American media company to broadcast the festival s ceremonies to 240 million households around the globe for a certain large amount of cash that he refused to divulge. It was all downhill after this announcement as the press continued to ask unimaginative, irrelevant and insignificant questions that not only reflected shallowness in their core, but also accidentally revealed a degree of ignorance. Throughout the course of the conference, Abo Ouf kept re-answering questions about why he had chosen not to screen one of his films in the festival; how the festival is countering competition from the other Arab festivals; why he had chosen young jury members (Egyptian director Kamla Abo Zikry); and why few Arabic films will be shown at the festival this year (there are in fact 23 Arabic films screened during this round; the inquirer was simply not aware of that). Abo Ouf was diplomatic and patient enough as usual, but to cut things short, he asked the press members - who at one point started to respond to one another, leaving the panel in utter bewilderment - to postpone their criticism about both the festival and its films until it actually started and finished. As for Sawiris, the questions addressed to him took more of the form of compliments and comments rather than definite queries. The one exciting moment of the conference had nothing to do with the festival itself; Sawiris was asked why the various ministries don t have a role in publicizing and assisting the festival. Sawiris replied by saying, Why expect other ministries to help us when they can t defend their culture representative [Farouk Hosni] whose only fault is expressing his freedom of speech? Sawiris was obviously referring to Hosni s recent controversial remarks about hijab. Sawiris words, along with the majority of the panel s responses, were met by warm applause. The 30th Cairo International Film Festival starts today.
