Joanna Hogg to Lead El Gouna Film Festival Jury

By Marcus Bennett

Joanna Hogg will preside over the main jury of Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival, which runs October 15-23 in its ninth edition. The British director, known for "The Souvenir" and "The Eternal Daughter," takes the top jury post at the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo.

Hogg, one of the U.K.'s leading auteurs, will also give a masterclass during the festival titled "Life Into Film." The festival announced the full composition of its jury rosters for the season.

Who sits on the main jury with Hogg?

The narrative competition jury brings together five figures from across the region and beyond:

• Egyptian actress Nahed El Sebaie ("19 B")
• Egyptian composer Khaled Hammad, whose three-decade career includes "The Yacoubian Building" and "The Inevitable Journey to Find a Wedding Dress"
• Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Shawkat Amin Korki ("Memories on Stone," "The Exam")
• Turkish auteur Yeşim Ustaoğlu, whose drama "What Remains" recently premiered to a positive reception at San Sebastian

What does the documentary jury decide?

The Swiss-Iraqi filmmaker, producer and multidisciplinary artist known as Samir will preside over the feature documentary competition and the "Green Star" jury. That panel judges both the documentary prizes and the festival's award for the best film addressing environmental issues.

Samir's jury includes:

• Afghanistan-born, Netherlands-based filmmaker Aboozar Amini ("Kabul, Between Prayers")
• Belgian producer Julie Frères ("From Abdul to Leila," "The Other Side of the Sun")
• Zurich Film Festival director and co-owner Reta Guetg
• Lebanese film editor Gladys Joujou ("Talking About Trees," "Bye Bye Tiberias")

And the shorts jury?

The short films competition jury numbers three members:

• Saudi director Meshal AlJaser ("Naga")
• Tunisian director Amel Guellaty ("Where the Wind Comes From")
• Greek actor and director Christos Passalis, who starred in "Dogtooth" and the Sundance Audience Award winner "Hold Onto Me"

What does this change for festival watchers? Hogg's presidency places a European auteur of rising international standing at the center of a festival that continues to assemble juries drawn from the Arab world, Europe and South Asia — a signal of El Gouna's positioning as a regional platform with global reach. Her masterclass, "Life Into Film," will offer audiences a direct account of how the director translates personal experience into work such as "The Souvenir," and it stands as the festival's marquee conversational event of this edition.