The 11th edition of the Cairo International Women's Film Festival kicked off on Saturday with screenings extending until 9 March. The festival will screen 54 films from 34 different countries including feature, documentary, and animated films. On Saturday, the festival opened with the Algerian film Until the End of Time, with the attendance of its director Yasmine Chouikh. The International Panorama section includes 20 of the most important films of 2018, to be screened for the first time in Egypt. The section includes the Japanese film Radiance by director Naomi Kawase, the Iranian film Gaze by director Farnoosh Samadi, the film Nalu on the Border by Cristine Oliveira, and Serbian film The Other Side of Everything, which won the IDFA Best Feature-Length Documentary and will be screened for the first time in the Arab region. The Caravan of Arab and Iberoamerican Women's Films includes nine films including Argentinian film The Desert Bride by directors Cecilia Atan and Valeria Pivato, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and Tunisian/British film The Man Behind the Microphone by Claire Belhassine, which tackles the life of the Tunisian singing icon Hedi Jouini. The festival is also screening Spanish film Summer 1993, which won the Best First Feature Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Best First Feature as Spain's entry for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film in 2017.
