All the World’s a Stage: Manassat Film Festival to launch 9th edition

The ninth edition of Manassat Film Festival will run from 29 to 31 May at Downtown Cairo's Cinema Zawya.

This edition's theme, "All the World's a Stage," is inspired by Shakespeare's pastoral comedy As You Like It.

Organised by the MasrdotBokra Foundation for Skills Development, the festival features 47 short films and documentaries and spotlights emerging Egyptian filmmakers.

This year's film jury features acclaimed filmmakers Tamer El-Said and Arab Loutfi, alongside music composer Khaled Al-Kammar.

The competition is divided into four main segments: Short Fiction, Short Nonfiction, Student Fiction, and Student Nonfiction.

Six films are competing in the Student Nonfiction category: I Am the Sun (Carmen Ghali and Jumana Labib), Beginning of the Road (Youhanna Ashraf), The Days Before, the Days After (Salma Ayman), Saudi One-Way (Salma Stohy), Mama (Summer Elfeky), and Mamina (Amira Abdel-Fadil).

Among the 10 films competing in the Short Nonfiction segment are: I Belong to You (Amina Aly Abdelghany), The Last Cowboy (Basma Sheren), No Dancing (Ibrahim Eshak), Ghaly (Karim Khazan), and Qahera (Ahmad Alaa Ismail).

The Student Fiction lineup includes Double Trouble (Ahmed Essam Soliman), Fionka (Rawan El-Ghonimi), Linda: The Grasscutter (Amr Daly), Saviour (Mazen Haggag), Nesma (Rahaf Ahmed Adel), along with 10 other titles.

The Short Fiction competition features 16 titles, including Abu Judy (Adel Ahmed Yehia), Natah (Islam Ahmed), Mango (Randa Ali), Teta (Ahmed Samir), Witness (May Sherif), and Dawn Every Day (Amir Youssef).

The first day of Manassat is highlighted by a masterclass led by film and television costume designer Reem El-Adl.

El-Adl will discuss her approach to designing costumes for film, television, and theatre and showcase her work in both independent and mainstream productions.

Her session will explore how costume design plays a crucial role in character development and storytelling.

On the festival's second day, Manassat collaborates with Filmlab Palestine—a Palestinian film hub—to screen five short Palestinian films: Letter to Obama (Mohanad Salahat), Khaled & Nema (Sohail Dahdal), Mar Mama (Majdi El-Omari), A Short Film About Kids (Ibrahim Handal), and The Deer's Tooth (Saif Hammash).

This year also marks the introduction of Manassat Salons—a community-focused series welcoming artists, curators, and filmmakers into an inclusive space for critical dialogue around film. The salons aim to foster conversations and share theories that advance the art form.

Participants will watch five films and engage in discussions that consider various art forms from diverse perspectives.

First launched in 2015 as Egypt's first online film festival, Manassat was initially established as a two-week programme.

The annual event continues to support emerging filmmakers in realising their creative visions.

All Manassat screenings and activities are free of charge, though prior registration is required.

From : Al-Ahram