Cairo Film Connection shines spotlight on projects by female Arab directors

The 11th Cairo Film Connection (CFC) opens today (November 17), featuring 16 projects from across the Arab world with an emphasis on women filmmakers.

CFC is part of Cairo Industry Days, the industry platform of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

Featured projects in development or post-production represent 11 Arab countries: Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Palestine, Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, Sudan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

The lineup focuses on new works by female directors, including . Alicantea new fictional project by French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker Lina Soualem about a young woman on an existential journey to Spain. Sualem’s first two feature-length documentaries; their algeria (2020) and bye bye Tiberias, (2023), premiered in Vision du Lille and Venice respectively.

rainbows don’t last long “” is a new fiction by Egyptian film director Maye Zayed, and the documentary lift like a girl He won the Golden Dove Award for Dok Leipzig and won major awards at CIFF 2020 including the Bronze Pyramid Award and the Audience Award. Her latest work is a tender family road trip story about an eight-year-old girl who loses her eyesight.

Another notable filmmaker is Egyptian-American filmmaker Randa Ali. His work often explores themes of alienation and identity. her characteristics rock, paper, sea is under development. An 11-year-old girl sets out to solve the mystery of her father’s absence. Ali’s previous projects have won awards at film festivals such as the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and the Toronto Arab Film Festival.

The selection includes nine documentary films and seven fiction films. “The distribution happened organically. Many of this year’s most attractive submissions were documentaries that were formally bold, politically astute, or concerned with archives, memory, and landscape,” said CFC director Rodrigo Blum. “Some projects occupy a hybrid territory, blurring the line between fiction and documentary. The choices reflect this evolution rather than a deliberate change.”

The documentary selection includes the work of Sudanese filmmaker Ibrahim Mohammed. Where do I belong? The story of a family torn apart by decades of displacement across the Global South is now once again caught in the crossfire of Sudan’s 2023 war. He recently co-directed a documentary. khartoum About Conflict continues in Sudan, and performances were held at both Sundance and the Berlinale this year.

meanwhile asphaltis a documentary project by Jordanian filmmaker Hamza Hamide that explores what it means for a young Palestinian refugee to seek love and stability in a life shaped by war, loss, and displacement.

Mr. Blum highlighted the numerous structural challenges facing Arab filmmakers, emphasizing that the most pressing issue is access to sustainable resources such as funding, time, space and creative freedom. He also warned against the pressure of external expectations that often push Arab films into narratives that are familiar to global audiences. “Today, filmmakers are resisting those pressures and embracing a variety of formats,” Blum said. “Platforms like Cairo Film Connection cannot solve these systemic problems, but they do provide a space where filmmakers can make their work authentic, connect with collaborators who understand the realities of local production, and spotlight projects from marginal contexts or without institutional support.”

CFC’s standout projects to date include works by French-Egyptian filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeh; life after siham It premiered at Cannes and won the Zurich Church Film Award. The film recently won three major awards at the El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) and was also screened in a special screening program in Cairo this year, where it will be screened for the first time in a new version with Arabic dubbing instead of the French used in the Cannes and GFF versions.

Similarly, Mohammed Siam father’s scent He benefited from early support from CFC and won the Best Actor award at the GFF. it hurts The film, by Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Barsaoui, premiered in Venice in 2024.

This year’s CFC jury consists of Golden Globe Award-winning Dutch-Palestinian director and screenwriter Hany Abu-Assad, and award-winning Egyptian director Ayten Amin, who made his feature debut. Villa 69 (2013), and Suad (2020) was selected for both the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlinale International Film Festival, and co-starred with Portuguese Susana Santos Rodríguez, co-director of the Indie Lisboa International Film Festival. Winning projects will be recognized on November 20th.

These projects are competing for $279,500 in prize money, including $71,500 in cash and $208,000 in support services awards. There are two main prizes, one for films in submission and one for films in development, worth $10,000 each.

Cash grants are being provided by several organizations, including Arab Radio Television Network (ART), Red Sea International Film Festival, Iraqi Film, Raghuney Film Productions, Rise Studio, Pathé Touch Africa, AH Media, and Special Touch.

In addition, the CFC award includes an invitation to projects to participate in the next Rough-Cut Lab Africa, Durban FilmMart, Medimed 2026, Malmö Film Market, and Amman Film Industry Days. Service awards include distribution services from MAD Solutions, post-production from Shift Studio, Cinetech, Cult, and Ambient Light, sound services from DTS, I Sound, and No’ta, development assistance from UNFPA and AA Films, and up to 100 hours of editing services from Together Media.