The movie is a semi-biographical tale about the director's early life and how he fell in love with filmmaking.
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans will open the 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival.
The film festival is scheduled to take place from November 13 – 22, 2022.
The festival will feature seven films in its Horizons of Arab Cinema competition, which opens with the world premiere of Egyptian filmmaker Sherief Elkatsha’s documentary Far From the Nile. Other films include The Family, by Algerian director Merzak Allouache, the Middle East premiere of Mounia Meddour’s Houria, Hassan Benjelloun’s Jaladine, Joad Said’s Joseph’s Journey, Carlos Chahine’s Mother Valley and Bassem Breche’s Riverbed.
In the main competition, Egyptian director Ahmad Abdalla’s 19 B will screen among 14 titles vying for the festival’s Golden Pyramid, including Ali Cherri’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player The Dam, Damian Kocur’s Venice prize winner Bread and Salt and Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Cannes Un Certain Regard selection Butterfly Vision.
There will also be Out of Competition screenings for a slew of award-winning festival hits including Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, Lukas Dhont’s Close, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, Laura Mora’s The Kings Of The World (Colombia) and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer.
Japanese director Naomi Kawase will head the international competition jury, which includes Egyptian cinematographer Nancy Abdelfattah, Indian actress Swara Bhasker, Egyptian composer Rageh Daoud, Italian actress Stefania Casini, Mexican filmmaker Joaquin Del Paso and Moroccan actor Samir Guesmi.
Cairo International Film Festival President Hussein Fahmi called the upcoming 44th edition of CIFF “The year of ambition and challenges,” posing the questions: “Where do we go from here? How can the festival take new steps, in particular, in light of an artistic scene dominated by the specter of a world war that has changed the global economic landscape and directly affected us locally?”
Fahmy insisted, however, that cinema remains “a bridge between cultures,” adding: “War and politics divide, nevertheless art heals the wounds created by conflict and eventually becomes a language with an alphabet known and belonging to everyone.”
Taking place from November 17 – 22, Cairo Industry Days will present a wide-ranging program of masterclasses, conversations, workshops and panel discussions featuring award-winning filmmakers and industry experts from around the world. Among them are masterclasses with Tarr and jury president Kawase; a session with Netflix VFX manager Ben Perry on creating spectacle VFX; and panels on green film production and the rise of Saudi cinema.
The Cairo Film Connection co-production market will showcase 15 projects from 10 countries across North Africa and the Middle East, including five from the host country. Awards will be handed out on November 20 by a jury composed of Berlin International Film Festival managing director Mariette Rissenbeek, Egyptian filmmaker and curator Viola Shafik, and Tunisian director Raja Amari.
