CINEMA FOR HUMANITY AUDIENCE AWARD

El Gouna Film Festival's Cinema for Humanity Award is dedicated to recognizing films that exemplify humanitarian themes. Feature-length films from the Narrative and Documentary Competitions and the Official Selection - Out of Competition program were nominated for this award. The winning film will receive a trophy and a cash prize of US $20,000.



The GFF 2025 Cinema for Humanity Audience Award was won ex aequo by



PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK

France, Palestine, Iran

Director: Sepideh Farsi

Producer: Javad Djavahery

An intimate portrait of life under siege in Gaza, told through video calls with photojournalist Fatma Hassona, killed one day after the film's Cannes selection.

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Egypt

Director: Sarah Goher

Producer: Ahmed El Desouky, Ahmed Abbas, Ahmed Badawy, Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner

First Feature.

The Festival's Opening Film. In her debut feature, Sarah Goher presents a poignant drama of Cairo's class divide, where a wealthy child's birthday collides with a working girl's mistaken hopes that she was invited.





EL GOUNA GREEN STAR

El Gouna Green Star Jury, that was tasked with the responsibility to award the prize to the film that best addresses environmental issues, featured three committed advocates for social and environmental causes: May Elghety, Actress, Activist, Egypt; Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director, CPH:DOX, Denmark; and Jana Wehbe, Producer, Cultural Advocate, Lebanon.



El Gouna Green Star Award (Trophy & US $ 10,000)

SEEDS

United States

Director: Brittany Shyne |

Producers: Danielle Varga, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Brittany Shyne

Jury Motivation

A film that addresses sustainability in its many facets and offers a meditation on survival, preserving land and agriculture in a masterfully cinematic language that immerses us in the life and environment of its protagonists



SHORT FILMS COMPETITION (SFC)

The Short Films Competition Jury comprised five international talents: Mahdi Fleifel, Film Director, Denmark-Palestine (President); Suad Bushnaq, Music Composer, Jordan-Canada; Juliette Canon, Programmer, Critics' Week - Cannes, France; Mostafa El Kashef, Cinematographer and Film Producer, Egypt; and Andrea Gatopoulos, Film Director, Italy.



The members of the SFC Jury announced the awards and revealed their motivations for the winning films



El Gouna Golden Star Award for Best Short Film (Trophy and US $15,000)

AGAPITO

Philippines

Director: Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero

Producers: Jon Galvez, Carlos Ortiz, Mick Quito

Jury Motivation

This film took us into a world far from our own and made it feel beloved and close. With quiet grace, it found the extraordinary, in the everyday. Playful at times, even bursting into song, it always stayed tender and true. With such simplicity and care, the filmmakers created something magical, human, and deeply moving.



El Gouna Silver Star Short Film (Trophy and US $7,500)

LOYNES

Belgium, France, United Kingdom, North Macedonia, co-production

Director: Dorian Jespers

Producers: Clyde Gates, Dorian Jespers, Jules Reinartz

Jury Motivation

"In the highly formatted space of short films, you rarely meet a mysterious specimen - one that has many doors, and few keys. For all the questions that it raised in us while making us laugh and wonder, and also for the marvel of its craft, the Silver Star goes to Loynes by Dorian Jespers!"



El Gouna Bronze Star for Short Film (Trophy and US $4,000)

WATER GIRL (FILLE DE L'EAU)

France, Netherlands, Portugal

Director: Sandra Desmazières

Producers: Jérôme Barthélemy, Daniel Sauvage, Olivier Catherin, Richard Valk, Vanessa Ventura, Nuno Amorim

Jury Motivation

Poetic meditation on aging and a celebration of a life deeply felt, the film flows between time and water, revealing the profound bond between body and landscape. Through its shifting textures, resonant sounds, and ever-changing environments, it traces the subtle imprint of memory and emotion. With grace and melancholy, the film becomes an ode to loss, resilience, and the quiet beauty of transformation-offering a deeply immersive reflection on what it means to live, to remember, and to let go.



El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Short Film that includes a Trophy and US $5,000 went to



THE DEVIL AND THE BICYCLE LE DIABLE ET LA BICYCLETTE

France, Lebanon

Director: Sharon Hakim

Producer: Astrig Chandèze-Avakian

Jury Motivation

The jury unanimously awards the Best Arab Short Film Award to this film for its bold, nuanced, and expertly crafted storytelling. The director handles a sensitive subject with poise, wit, and depth, blending charm and humour with emotional and philosophical complexity. The lead actress delivers a compelling performance, while the use of religious hymns and symbols over sensual scenes creates a layered tension, elevating the exploration of faith and desire. With a sharp screenplay, seamless editing, and a balanced approach to a delicate theme, the film stands out for its artistic courage, originality, and profound humanity. The Best Arab Short Film Award goes to The Devil and the Bicycle by Sharon Hakim!





FEATURE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION (FDC)

The Feature Documentary Competition Jury is comprised of five celebrated professionals: Nicolas Philibert, Filmmaker, France (President); Hala Galal, Writer, Director, Producer, Egypt; Sona Karapoghosyan, Film Critic, Curator, Armenia; Asmae El Moudir, Writer, Director, Producer, Morocco; and Mohamed Saïd Ouma, Executive Director, Documentary Africa, Reunion Island.



El Gouna Golden Star for Best Feature Documentary, that includes, a Trophy and US $30,000 was awarded to

ALWAYS

United States, France, China, Taiwan

Director: Deming Chen | Producer: Hansen Lin

Jury Motivation

A director with a unique perspective, a beautiful poetic film about dreams, imagination and loneliness in one's childhood… The Golden Star for Documentary film of the 8th edition of the El Gouna Film Festival goes to Always, directed by Mr Deming Chen.



El Gouna Silver Star for Documentary film (Trophy and US $15,000)



LIFE AFTER SIHAM | LA VIE APRÈS SIHAM

France, Egypt

Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh

Producer(s): Namir Abdel Messeeh, Camille Laemle

Jury Motivation

Telling one's family story is never easy. In this film, Namir Abdel Messeeh manages to do so with great delicacy, modesty, tenderness and humor. He shows us that the camera can become a tool that helps to build bonds between generations, and that cinema can both revive the memory of the departed and bring the living closer together, beyond cultures, distances and borders.



El Gouna Bronze Star for Documentary Film (Trophy and US $7,500)

ORWELL: 2+2=5

United States, France

Director: Raoul Peck

Producer(s): Alex Gibney, Raoul Peck, George Chignell, Nick Shumaker

Jury Motivation

In this pamphlet against systemic violences, Raoul Peck connects the dots weaving together reflections and notes on freedom, truth, ignorance and manipulation, from Georges Orwell diaries. It is a frontal, uncompromising film, a lucid and necessary reminder of the times we are living in.



El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Documentary Film (Trophy and US $10,000)

LIFE AFTER SIHAM | LA VIE APRÈS SIHAM

France, Egypt

Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh

Producer(s): Namir Abdel Messeeh, Camille Laemle



For using cinema to tell the story of a family, generations and an entire nation, to fulfil the unfulfillable gap left after the loss of a beloved one and somehow succeeding to do so, this family portrait touched us by its complexity, sincerity and devotion, the El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Documentary film goes to Life After Siham, by Namir Abdel Messeeh

HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY

Kenya, United States

Directors & Producers: Maia Lekow, Christopher King

Jury Motivation

From Nairobi, this film reminds us that in Africa and elsewhere, restoring a library is an act of resistance against erasing. At the same time, it offers us a profound reflection on how a nation can reclaim its history. In an age when globalization is reshaping our collective memory, it quietly but powerfully affirms that preserving knowledge is preserving our humanity. This is why we have decided to give a Special Mention to the film How to Build a Library, by Maia Lekow and Christopher King.



FEATURE NARRATIVE COMPETITION (FNC)

El Gouna Golden Star for Best Narrative Film (Trophy and US $50,000)

A POET | UN POETA

Colombia, Germany, Sweden

Director: Simón Mesa Soto

Producer(s): Simón Mesa Soto, Juan Sarmiento G., Manuel Ruiz Montealegre

Jury Motivation

The poignant odyssey of a man who dreams of poetry but is held to the ground and to life by a force of gravity and by adverse circumstances is rendered in an observational, semi-documentary form realized in a dancing symbiosis with the extraordinary protagonist Ubeimar Rios. Its very dark and finely calibrated hilarity does not prevent the film from having a politically aware gaze, sustained by an empathy that is never condescending.





El Gouna Silver Star for Narrative Film (Trophy and US $25,000)

LUCKY LU

Canada, United States

Director: Lloyd Lee Choi

Producer(s): Destin Daniel Cretton, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Asher Goldstein, Tony Yang, Ron Najor, Jeyun Munford

Jury Motivation

The effort to find a life worth living, despite endless adversity, takes shape in the urban wanderings of the protagonist, magnificently portrayed by Chang Chen, who struggles between a miserably paid job and an ill-advised idea to keep bad luck at bay. The film thus transcends in the silhouette of an urban symphony and pleads for universal human dignity.



El Gouna Bronze Star for Narrative Film (Trophy and US $15,000)

THE SETTLEMENT | AL MOSTA'MARA

Egypt, France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

Director: Mohamed Rashad

Producer(s): Hala Lotfy, Etienne De Ricaud, Kesmat Elsayed

Jury Motivation

A strong work, devoid of any aesthetic embellishment, that focuses its attention on what remains of the Egyptian working class, set in a factory reduced to its bare minimum. Destiny and social predetermination intertwine in a clear and severe gaze that evokes Italian neorealist cinema.



El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film (Trophy and US $20,000)

WHERE THE WIND COMES FROM | WAYN YAKHUDUNA AL RIYH

Tunisia, France, Qatar

Director: Amel Guellaty

Producers: Asma Chiboub, Karim Aitouna, Chadi Abo

Jury Motivation

A film embodied in the magnificent and surprising Eya Bellagha and in the journey of a free and dreamlike road movie that chooses to embrace the genuine pleasure of storytelling and by doing so shape the dreams of a generation betrayed by the revolution and by a present that offers no escape. A free and passionate work.





El Gouna Star for the Best Actress (Trophy)

Léa Drucker

ADAM'S SAKE | L'INTÉRÊT D'ADAM

Belgium, France

Director: Laura Wandel

Producers:: Stéphane Lhoest, Delphine Tomson, Marie-Ange Luciani, Annemie Degryse, Jan De Clercq

Jury Motivation

An intense and complex performance torn from a camera that follows her obsessively, and in a tight dialogue with an institution - the hospital and its bureaucracy - that sometimes loses sight of the human beings entrusted to it. A masterful lesson in social and naturalist realism elevated by impeccable stylization that allows pain and anger to manifest themselves through minimal yet essential gestures.



El Gouna Star for the Best Actor (Trophy)

Ahmed Malek

MY FATHER'S SCENT | KOLUNIA

Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France

Director: Mohamed Siam

Producers: Mohamed Siam, Mohamed Hefzy

For his role - compressed within a resentful and multidimensional sentimental journey toward a father who is about to die - and from whom he wishes to be seen; probably for the last time, perhaps for the first time. A complex and layered role that the actor manages to bring to life by drawing on an emotional spectrum that shifts freely from a childlike sensitivity to that of an adult man who may be preparing to become the man his father never was.



The FNC Jury also gave a Special Jury Mention to

ROMERIA

Spain, Germany

Director: Carla Simón

Producers: María Zamora, Olimpia Pont Cháfer, Àngels Masclans

Jury Motivation

A search for origins that takes on the contours of a sensual and dreamlike ghost story. A film that confirms the great talent of the director and her unconventional gaze, and that promises to deliver even more surprising results in the future.





"BEHIND THE CAMERA" AWARDS

In addition to the main competition prizes, El Gouna Film Festival announced the second edition of the "Behind the Camera" Awards, presented on Thursday evening to honor creative professionals working behind the scenes and celebrate their contributions to the art of cinema.

The "Behind the Camera" initiative recognizes outstanding achievements in key technical and creative disciplines such as cinematography, editing, costume design, music composition, and production design-spotlighting the individuals who shape a film's artistic vision and elevate its quality through craftsmanship and collaboration.

This year, the "Behind the Camera Creative Achievement Award" was presented to Director of Photography Dr. Tarek El Telmissany in recognition of his remarkable career and enduring impact on Egyptian and Arab cinema. The award was received on his behalf by Abdel Salam Moussa and Mostafa Fahmy.

The "Behind the Camera" Award for Recent Achievement-dedicated to outstanding work that has demonstrated exceptional creativity and technical expertise between last year's and this year's festival editions-was awarded to Heba Osman for Editing.

Closing Performance

The ceremony concluded with a musical performance by Ahmed Saad, who entertained the audience with a selection of his popular songs, including "Eh El Youm El Helw Da," "Maksarat," and a specially prepared rendition of "Khalik Hena" created exclusively for the El Gouna Film Festival closing night.

About El Gouna Film Festival

One of the leading festivals in the MENA region, GFF aims to showcase a wide variety of films for a passionate and knowledgeable audience, while fostering better communication between cultures through the art of filmmaking. Its goal is to connect filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The festival is committed to the discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world.