Egypt's int'l El Gouna Film Festival closes, highlights Gaza crisis

Cairo [Egypt], October 25: Egypt's international El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) concluded its 8th edition in the Red Sea coastal resort city of Hurghada on Friday, a run that strongly reaffirmed the festival's humanitarian commitment through its "Window on Palestine" program.
This year's GFF, which opened on Oct. 16, features approximately 70 films from around the world, spanning feature narratives, documentaries, and short films, according to the official website of the GFF.
The "Window on Palestine" program, a special section of the annual festival, provided a global platform making Palestinian voices heard, particularly those from Gaza. This is the third consecutive year the GFF has featured the program.
This year's "Window on Palestine" showcased a special selection of seven short documentaries. These films offered raw, intimate glimpses into the lives, struggles, dreams, and resilience of people enduring unimaginable circumstances in Gaza.
"Their screening at GFF ensured that stories of daily life, fear, and hope -- produced under extreme conditions in Gaza -- reached a worldwide audience, a testament to the festival's belief in cinema as a vital medium for understanding," Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, who conceptualized the initiative, told Xinhua.
He underscored the program's crucial importance to the new generation of artists in Gaza.
Masharawi added that these young filmmakers, working under unimaginable conditions, "have managed to capture the essence of their humanity, their dreams, their pain, and their resilience."
The "Window on Palestine" has cemented the GFF's commitment to supporting Palestinian cinema since its launch in 2023. By closing the festival with a focus on these urgent narratives, GFF reinforced its dedication to using film to promote dialogue and empathy during challenging times.
Masharawi stressed that hosting these films at the GFF was an honor for the filmmakers, praising the platform for understanding the power of cinema to connect and inspire.
"By screening these seven short documentaries, we are not just showing films; we are building bridges and proving that nobody can occupy cinema," he said.
The GFF, which started in 2017 with "cinema for humanity" as its permanent cause, has been exerting maximum efforts to support various causes, including refugees, women empowerment and sustainability.
Source: Xinhua