El Gouna's CineGouna Awards $350,000 to 16 Projects

CineGouna Funding handed out more than $350,000 in cash and services at the ninth edition of the El Gouna Film Festival, with 40 awards going to 16 of the 19 projects taking part, according to Variety.

Rama Abdy's documentary House No. 7, a Syrian project in post-production, won the $15,000 CineGouna Platform Award, while Zoulikha Tahar's Paradise Beach took the $15,000 prize for a project in development. Marwa Zein's Lily's Makkah received a €10,000 grant, post-production support and an invitation to Durban FilmMart.

The programme drew more than 320 Arab film project applications this year, including more than 100 from Egypt. Participating teams held more than 140 one-on-one meetings with companies, institutions and international festivals.

New strand and forum sessions

El Gouna also created the Egyptian Voices strand, giving four additional local projects training in pitching, packaging and co-production. Ahmed Shawky heads CineGouna Funding.

The CineGouna Forum sessions included a panel titled Producing Against the Odds, with Palestinian producer May Odeh among the participants, under forum head Ahmed Amer. This year's CineGouna Emerge cohort spans 16 nationalities and includes Egyptians from 20 of the country's 27 governorates, according to Hayat Aljowaily's programme.

CineGouna Emerge initially focused on covering the costs of bringing participants to El Gouna, and more than 300 participants have passed through the programme since.