Egyptian filmmakers get top awards at Cairo festival

Dec 10, 2010, 9:18 GMT

Cairo - Egyptian filmmakers and actors walked off with all the top prizes at the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.

Khaled al-Haggar received the Golden Pyramid for al-Shouq (Longing), about the social repression of impoverished young women in Cairo, during the closing ceremony on Thursday night.

He is the first Egyptian to win the top honour at the festival since 1996.

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, the festival's honorary president, presented the award to the cast of the film.

The 10-day festival, the oldest event of its kind in the Middle East, featured 147 films from 70 countries.

Ahmed Abdullah's Microphone won top prize in the Arab Film Competition. The film depicts the hardships facing independent bands on the music scene in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city.

Egypt's Sawsan Badr, who starred in al-Shouq, shared the best actress award with French actress Isabelle Huppert for her role in Copacabana.

The best actor award was also shared between the Egyptian Amr Waked and Italian Alessandro Gassman for their performances in Il Padre E Lo Straniero, or The Father and the Foreigner, by Italian director Ricky Tognazzi.

Young female director Ayten Amin also won the top prize in the Cairo Film Connection competition for her script 69 Messaha, a comedy about a 62-year-old man with a terminal illness. Characters from his past, such as his ex-wife and older sister, invade his carefully constructed solitude which leads to gradual changes in his view of life.

The Cairo Film Connection is a new competition that aims to increase co-production for film originating from the Arab world. Ten scripts were competing for the 100,000 Egyptian pounds (18,000 dollars) prize offered to pre-production phase projects.

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