'Kallam Al Layl' by director Inas El Degheidy marked Ezz's acting debut in 1999.
Cairo International Film Festival will honour Egyptian actor Ahmed Ezz with the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence in recognition of his artistic career during the 45th edition, which is scheduled to take place from November 15-24, 2023.
Hussein Fahmy, Head of CIFF, said: “As part of our efforts to encourage artists who have made significant contributions to Egyptian cinema, Ahmed Ezz will receive the Faten Hamama Award, recognizing his distinguished career in cinema. We are delighted to see this honouring ceremony approaching, and we wish him great success in his future endeavours.”
Amir Ramses, Director of the festival, added: “For his success in building a great artistic career over the past few years, as well as his willingness to explore a variety of genres, which have traditionally dominated the box office, I am glad that we chose Ahmed Ezz to receive this award.”
Ahmed Ezz commented: “When Mr Hussein Fahmy spoke to me about choosing me to receive the award from Cairo Film Festival, I was very happy, because he is a great artist who I have for long admired what he presented to the cinema, and he is my role model. I also was honoured to receive that award granted by the prestigious Cairo International Film Festival, in the presence of the great artist Hussein Fahmy.”
Ezz continued: “The award itself is a message that came at the right time to encourage me to pursue a better future and career options since I believe I have not yet accomplished everything I dream of. In my early days as an actor, I developed a close relationship with Cairo Festival because I found it to be a great place to meet filmmakers. It is a very important event that contributes value to artists and the movie industry, and I hope granting this honour will lead me to a new career path in cinema that will surpass all my previous work.”
As an actor, Ezz made his debut in 1999 with director Inas El Degheidy’s Kallam Al Layl. The actor has since starred in more than 40 films, and became most famous for leading in multiple hit action films.
His popularity stems from his versatility as an actor in comedy, drama, thriller and action film and television. In 2022, he starred in the epic action drama Kira & El Gin which became the highest-grossing film in the history of Egyptian cinema.
Ezz is the first Egyptian artist to amass a total of EGP 385m in revenues within four years, due to his earnings from his latest five films, El Mamar (2019), Awlad Rizk 2 (2019), Al Aref (2021), Al Gareema (2022) and Kira & El Gin (2022).
He also received the Best Supporting Actor award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2004 for his performance in Girl’s Love.
