THE LAUNCHERS
Naguib Sawires
Founder of El Gouna Film Festival
Egypt
Samih Sawires
Founder of El Gouna Film Festival
Egypt
Intishal Al-Tamimi
Manager of El Gouna Film Festival
Iraq
El Gouna has just celebr ated its fifth anniver sary edition. Any early doubts that billionaire businessman Naguib, a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest f amily, would keep going with this ambitious festival in the high-end Red Sea resort have all but e vaporated, with the s wanky festival confirmed as one of the premier destinations f or Arab films. The only doubts no w revolve around competition from other regional film festiv als, most of which occur during the more temperate last quarter of the year . An essential source of project financing for Arab cinema, the Cine - Gouna Platform still grants its winner s a t otal of more than $200,000.