The Silver Jubilee of the Cairo International Film Festival

The Nineteenth festival

-Took place in December 1995.

-50 countries participated with 250 films, 20 in the international contest and 11 in the Naguib Mahfouz contest.

-The Indian actress and director Shabana Azmy headed the panel of jury for the international competition while the head of the panel of jury for the Nagib Mahfouz competition was Dr. Gaber Azfour, Naglaa Fathy was a member of this panel. The actor Hussein Fahmy and director Hussein Kamal were members of the international panel of judges.

-The festival took place at the Cairo Conference Center and the opening film was “Underground” which was directed by the Bosnian director Amir Costorika. The 5 Egyptian films participating were as follows “Oh, world my lover” starring Laila Elwy, Ilham Shahin and Hala Sedky and directed by Magdy Mohamed Aly, “Traffic” starring Laila Elwy, Mohamed Fouad and directed by Khiry Beshara, “Meet fol” starring Sharyhan, Hassan Hosny and directed by Ra’afat El Mihy. Those films were in the international competition while the films, “The demons of the Azfalt” starring Mahmoud Hemaida and directed by Osama Fawzy and “the switch” starring Farouk El Fishawy and directed by Amaly Bahnasy participated in the Naguib Mahfouz competition.

-The honored Egyptians that year were Ahmad Mazhar, Kamal El Sheikh, Mary Quinny, Nadia Lotfy and Atef El Tayeb. The honored foreigners were the French producers Jean Francois, Lee Betty and claude D’Osar, Spanish producer Elias Krikhiter, Russian director Koures Shakhanazarov, Italian director Giozbi di Santes, Polish director Felix Falk and director Alberto Suzy, the director of the closing film “The final journey”.

-The Golden Pyramid Award went to the Philippino film “Flor’s story” while the jury’s award and the Silver Pyramid went to the Egyptian film “Traffic”. The Best Director award went to Ukrainian Serge Mama Slobo for his film “Josephine singer and the rat world”. The Irish actor Steven Ric was awarded Best Actor for his role in the American film “Citizen X” while the Philippine Nora Hunor won the Best Actress Award for her role in “Flor’s story”. The Best Film Award in the Naguib Mahfouz competition went to the Indian film “Forgiveness”.