In addition to honoring two film figures of renowned film directors.
CIFF just announced that Mexico is the country in focus program features eight screenings, along with a number of seminars and Master Classes.
According to CIFF president, Mohamed Hefzy:
“One can draw a lot of parallels between Mexican and Egyptian cinema throughout the ages.
Both countries had a golden age hat produced not only timeless classics appreciated not only domestically, but in neighboring countries and sometimes internationally as well.
Both went through a decline, artistically and in terms of production capacity.
Yet a new wave of Mexican filmmakers helped revive Mexican cinema into a new golden age, whereas in Egypt the signs of a vibrant new independent film scene began to promise some hope.
At such crossroads, one has to look to our distant counterpart and take inspiration and recipes for how to replicate this success domestically”.
The connection with Egypt, Hefzy added, extends to the content core too, with two of its most important film scripts based on novels by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz.
The 41st CIFF is proudly honoring Oscar-nominee screenwriter-director, Guillermo Arriaga, Cannes’ Palme D’or winner for Best screenplay.
Arriaga, the screenwriter of epic films such as “Babel”, “21 Grams” and “Amores Perros”, will be giving an extended, three-hour masterclass on script writing.
Filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, Former Cannes’ Jury Member and also, Cannes Best Director Award, known for his lyrical, experimental style. An open dialogue with Reygadas on his works will also be held.
On the other side, Screenwriter-director Michel Franco, who won Cannes’s Un Certain Regard twice as well as a best screenplay award also at Cannes will be a jury member of the International Competition.
Also as an honorary guest in light of honoring the Mexican Cinema, Filmmaker Gabriel Ripstein, winner of the best debut award at the Berlinale in 2015 and son of director Arturo Ripstein, who made the Mexican version of Mahfouz’s “The Beginning and the End”
