El Gouna's CineGouna Hands Out $350,000 as It Fills Arab Film Funding Gaps

CineGouna Funding awarded more than $350,000 in cash and services at the ninth edition of Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival, running through Oct. 23 on the Red Sea, as the festival's industry arm doubled down on its claim to fill the structural gaps of Arab cinema.

More than 320 Arab film projects applied to CineGouna Funding this year, including more than 100 from Egypt. That local volume alone prompted El Gouna to create Egyptian Voices, a new strand giving four additional local projects training in pitching, packaging and co-production.

Forty awards went to 16 of the 19 participating projects. Syrian filmmaker Rama Abdy's documentary "House No. 7," about three women building a refuge in Damascus, won the $15,000 CineGouna Platform Award for a project in post-production. Algerian filmmaker Zoulikha Tahar's "Paradise Beach," previously selected for Berlinale Talents, took the $15,000 award for a project in development. Sudanese filmmaker Marwa Zein's "Lily's Makkah," her first fiction feature after the documentary "Khartoum Offside," received a €10,000 grant, post-production support and an invitation to Durban FilmMart. The projects also held more than 140 one-on-one meetings with companies, institutions and international festivals.

What is CineGouna trying to fix?

"There are three big gaps in the Arab world," Ahmed Shawky, who heads CineGouna Funding, told Variety. He named the lack of national film funds in many countries, limited co-production treaties and the volatility of regional funding. Shawky, a film critic and festival programmer, pointed to Egypt, where the film commission focuses on attracting foreign productions rather than financing local films.

"In Egypt, we don't have a national film fund, with 100 years of cinema history, more than 4,000 features," he said.

Regional funds have helped fill some of that void, but Shawky said their resources fluctuate, leaving filmmakers uncertain about available support — a caveat that shadows any promise of stability.

Financing also shapes what gets made, in Shawky's view. He sees two currents among Arab filmmakers: those responding directly to war, political upheaval and social issues, and others pursuing personal or genre-driven stories. International funds often favor the former.

"Only focusing on traumatizing topics makes filmmakers impose self-censorship," Shawky said. "Even if they have two topics, they will pick the one that sounds sexy for funders."

"We want to give every filmmaker a chance," he added. "And it's up to the artist to decide whether to tackle those topics or simply make art."

What does access actually change?

CineGouna's work extends beyond financing. CineGouna Emerge, headed by Egyptian filmmaker, producer and programmer Hayat Aljowaily, focuses on emerging filmmakers and film professionals from Egypt, the Arab world and Africa.

Aljowaily recalled that Emerge initially covered the costs of bringing participants to El Gouna. But getting newcomers through the door did not necessarily give them confidence or connections.

"Year after year, we realized that access alone wasn't enough, and that we had to create an environment and carve out a space for these participants," she said. "It's about creating a community."

Emerge has since added mentorship, workshops, industry meetings and a dedicated "campus" at the heart of the festival. More than 300 participants have passed through the program; this year's cohort spans 16 nationalities and includes Egyptians from 20 of the country's 27 governorates.

"It's not just for Cairo, but also for other cities," Aljowaily said, noting that El Gouna "is not really accessible for all Egypt."

The results are concrete, if anecdotal. A young woman from Upper Egypt came to El Gouna last year having never been to a cinema. Selected from around 1,000 applicants, she pitched a project picked up by an Egyptian short-film producer and received one of two university scholarships, allowing her to move to Cairo to study cinema. Jordanian filmmaker Asmahan Bakirat pitched as a director last year, returned this year as a producer and was selected for Emerge's Rising Stars program.

What about the money's track record?

The proof cases are on screen. Lebanese filmmaker Karim Kassem's "Pipes," which premiered in Karlovy Vary's Crystal Globe competition, came through CineGouna Funding, where it won a Red Sea post-production award that helped complete its sound mix.

"But it wasn't only the award," Kassem said. "The contacts I made here, before and after the pitch, were incredibly important to the journey of the film."

Moroccan filmmaker Yassine El Idrissi traced a similar path with "Halima," which came to CineGouna in post-production before premiering in Shanghai's main competition and winning best director and best actress. "CineGouna was the first platform we applied to," he said. "That gave us confidence in the project and helped make the film known."

Both filmmakers return to El Gouna this year with their completed films in competition — what Shawky calls a "full circuit."

CineGouna Forum, headed by producer and screenwriter Ahmed Amer, brings filmmakers and industry figures together for panels, masterclasses and discussions. This year's sessions included "Producing Against the Odds," featuring Palestinian producer May Odeh — who has three films at the festival ("Safe Exit," "Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep," "Dear Ajayi" and "Outside the Expected Frame") — with Toronto Film Festival programming director Robyn Citizen.

Amer sees tighter financing pushing filmmakers toward lower budgets and genre films. But he argued money is not the region's only missing resource.

"Filmmakers need more creative producers," Amer said. "Funding is definitely an issue, but creative producers are needed badly."

"I often meet filmmakers and producers who are only thinking about their current projects," he added. "We often forget that we need to carefully plan a career. One film is a part of a longer journey."

As El Gouna approaches its 10th edition, Shawky says the next step is strengthening CineGouna's international presence and developing more year-round activity beyond the annual festival. Whether a festival-run program can substitute for the national film funds the region still lacks remains the open question.