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El Gouna Artistic Director Marianne Khoury on Festival’s Full Return: ‘If I Am Convinced Something Needs to Happen, It Will Happen’


After postponing the 2023 edition from October to December due to the Gaza War, El Gouna Film Festival is back in full force for its seventh edition.

The postponements and uncertainty challenged artistic director Marianne Khoury, who started at the job a few months before the festival’s sixth iteration and took over from Amir Ramses. One of the leading film festivals in the Middle East and North Africa region, this year’s El Gouna will feature some of the most prominent films of the year’s festival circuit, including Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes-winning “The Substance,” and Pedro Almodóvar’s Golden Lion-winning “The Room Next Door.” Amongst Arab highlights, audiences will be able to see Nabil Ayouch’s Cannes Premiere breakout “Everybody Loves Touda,” Meryam Joobeur’s Berlinale competition title “Who Do I Belong To” and Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir’s “The Brink of Dreams,” which won the Golden Eye Award for best documentary at Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Khoury, who is a managing partner in prominent Cairo-based Misr International Films—founded by her uncle, the great Egyptian director Youssef Chahine—has decades of experience in the industry, including directing several documentaries and shepherding over 30 Arab films and docs.

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