At this year’s Cairo Intl. Film Festival, Egyptian filmmakers arrive not just to premiere their films, but to stake a claim in the country’s cinematic future. Once the beating heart of Arab cinema, Egypt’s industry is no longer defined by its commercial past or nostalgic golden age. Instead, it’s being reimagined by a generation that views filmmaking not as revival, but reclamation. Across the festival’s lineup and its Cairo Film Connection pitching platform, directors are crafting a cinema that is at once personal, political, and daring.

“I think my work is a mix of continuation and reinvention,” says documentarian Yomna Khattab, who brings her deeply personal project “I Have Other Friends” to Cairo Film Connection. “I’m inspired by the greats — Chahine, Khan, Khairy Beshara. Such a legacy makes me feel responsible not to imitate, but to create narratives and visual styles that are true to my generation.”

For filmmaker Mayye Zayed, whose in-development feature “Rainbows Don’t Last Long” is being presented in the pitching competition, that generational shift also means rewriting who gets to be seen. “There haven’t been enough female-driven stories in Egyptian cinema,” she says. “That’s why I wanted to tell stories about the women I know, independent films that still reach Egyptian audiences and have real impact.”

That spirit threads through this year’s Egyptian slate: from Yasser Shafiey’s deadpan satire “Complaint No. 713317,” to Mai Saad and Ahmed Al Danaf’s frontline documentary filmed in Gaza, “One More Show,” and Maged Nader’s meditative “All That the Wind Can Carry.” Some are screening in competition, others are seeking partners, but all share the same quiet conviction that Egyptian cinema’s renewal begins with the personal.

For Abanoub Nabil, whose short “The Unnamed” premieres in competition, CIFF is more than a platform, it’s a homecoming. “During my student days, we used to skip classes to attend CIFF screenings and masterclasses,” he recalls. “That festival was where I first discovered world cinema. It was our real classroom. To now stand there with my own film feels like coming home.”

Across fiction, documentary, and hybrid forms, these filmmakers are building a cinema that speaks first to themselves, and, in doing so, to everyone else.

International Feature Competition
“One More Show” (2025)
(Mai Saad, Ahmed Al Danaf, Egypt, Palestine. Produced by Baho Bakhsh and Safei Eldin Mahmoud)
Shot under bombardment in Gaza, “One More Show” follows The Free Gaza Circus as they perform for displaced children amid devastation. Co-directed by Egyptian filmmaker Mai Saad and Gazan cinematographer Ahmed Al Danaf, the feature documentary stands as both testimony and act of defiance.

“We created this film under continuous bombardment and the constant threat of genocide,” says Al Danaf. His hope is that viewers see, “how deeply we love life, and how we do not wish for death.” The result is a haunting portrait of resilience and resistance, a reminder that even in war, art remains an act of survival.

Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition
“Complaint No. 713317” (2025)
(Yasser Shafiey, Egypt. Produced by Red Star, Misr Intl. Films, Film Squire, Filmology Production)
A darkly comic yet quietly devastating debut, “Complaint No. 713317” transforms a broken fridge into a metaphor for a society stuck in repair mode. Starring Mahmoud Hemida and Sherine, Shafiey’s intimate character study captures a retired couple’s descent into bureaucratic absurdity. Dynamic within its minimalism, the film examines “Al Qahr,” an untranslatable sense of everyday oppression and injustice, with deadpan precision and emotional restraint, marking a striking new voice in Egyptian social cinema. Shafeiy reflects, “This is not a story about a fridge. It’s about what we’ve learned to live with—or without.”

Short Films Competition
“The Unnamed”
(Abanoub Nabil, Egypt. Produced by Baho Bakhsh, Safei Eldin, Mark Lotfy)
Set in Alexandria, “The Unnamed” follows Jannah, the young daughter of a belly dancer, as she roams the city’s streets alone, carrying a jar that holds a part of her mother’s body. What begins as a desperate errand becomes a haunting journey through fear, love, and survival. Writer-director Abanoub Nabil draws on childhood memory and personal loss to explore how illness reshapes identity and how children quietly inherit their parents’ pain. Dedicated to “every woman, mother, and daughter living in instability,” the film’s realism and empathy mark Nabil as a bold new voice in Egyptian cinema.

Cairo Film Connection
“Rainbows Don’t Last Long” (In Development, Fiction)
(Mayye Zayed, Cléo Media, Egypt)
Following her acclaimed documentary “Lift Like a Girl,” Mayye Zayed returns with “Rainbows Don’t Last Long,” a tender family road trip tale about an eight-year-old girl losing her eyesight. As Salma travels across Egypt with her separated parents, from Alexandria to the Red Sea, she races to see the world’s colors before they fade. Developed through programs including Film Independent’s Global Media Makers and the Nipkow Residency, the project transforms Egypt’s landscapes into an emotional map. Zayed describes Egypt as “the film’s fourth character … not polished or exoticized, but textured and authentic.”

“I Have Other Friends” (In Development, Non-Fiction)
(Yomna Khattab, Egypt)
In “I Have Other Friends,” documentarian Yomna Khattab turns the camera inward, embarking on an unflinching exploration of female friendship, adulthood, and the passage of time. Blending diary, correspondence, and confessional, the project revisits the filmmaker’s relationships with five close friends as she approaches 40. “It’s a coming-of-age story that happens later in life,” says Khattab. Poetic and personal, the film continues Egypt’s long tradition of intimate nonfiction, reimagined for a generation redefining connection and womanhood.

“All That the Wind Can Carry” (Post-Production, Fiction)
(Maged Nader, Egypt, Qatar. Produced by Maged Nader and Tamer El Said)
Inspired by memories of his grandmother’s dementia, Maged Nader’s “All That the Wind Can Carry” blurs the line between memory, dream, and loss. When Susana’s fading mind begins to fold past and present into one, the film becomes a meditation on time and the traces family stories leave behind. Co-produced with Tamer El Said, the project blends intimacy with visual experimentation, exploring how personal history can both shape and distort identity.