Middle Eastern movie festivals appear jinxed. The El Gouna Film Festival – headed by the brilliant Intishal Al Timimi – has been cancelled this year. It was to have taken place mid-October. Opening in 2017, it had a marvellous five-year-run. Will this go the way the Dubai and Abu Dhabi festivals went?
In 2015, Abu Dhabi, piloted by Al Timimi, pulled its shutters down after eight editions. The event had become significant in the international festival circuit, and was giving Dubai a run for its money. But three years later, in 2018, Dubai also decided to close down.
Both Dubai, headed by Shivani Pandya, and Abu Dhabi were lovely festivals with fantastic selections which appeared to beat Cairo’s – a festival which had tottered along for over 40 years.
In a press release that came the other day, El Gouna announced a new approach for its 2023 edition, and this sounded so similar to one from Dubai in 2018.
In the surprise announcement, El Gouna stated that “in view of current global challenges, and with the consequent need to develop an integrated strategy that will live up to the growing expectations of the Festival as a leading platform for film, art and culture, the decision was made to postpone the Festival.”
This follows the fifth El Gouna, which many termed the best of all, but was unfortunately beset by a series of mishaps. They included a fire in the red carpet area a day before the Festival began, the deportation of Palestinian director Said Zagha, a local protest against the Egyptian movie, Feathers, and the shocking resignation of the event’s Artistic Director, Amir Ramses.
The press note added that this postponement would give time to explore “artistic and organisational side” of the Festival, which will aim to attract a wide variety of attendees when it returns next year.
“Since its inaugural edition in 2017, the Festival has tried to become the leading cinematic platform in the region. The management has indicated that the next edition will stem from this objective. A long list of invitees will be compiled to ensure all generations and nationalities interested in the film business, of which Egypt has been at the forefront in the Arab region, can share their experiences.
“This decision will allow more time to focus on both the artistic and organisational side of upcoming editions, while strengthening the Festival’s ability to play its leading role and contribute to the development of the movie industry regionally and internationally.”
Middle East now has, apart from Cairo, a festival in Marrakech, which is on a downward trend after a decade of excellence when I saw some of the top international celebrities there, and they included Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu, among others.
This leaves the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region with the Red Sea International Film Festival at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia whose inaugural edition took place in December 2021. It has all the potential to become huge, given the Saudi drive – after three decades when entertainment was banned in the Kingdom – to make cinema big, really big. The effort began in 2018, and in these few years, the country has seen the emergence of a large number of theatres and a robust movie culture.
This year, Red Sea will run from December 1 to 10, and there is already a big buzz around it.
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