EXCLUSIVE: Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival has launched a new initiative supporting and promoting emerging directing, writing and producing talents in the MENA region and unveiled the first participants.
The Cinegouna Emerge Rising Stars initiative has been created within the framework of the festival’s Cinegouna Emerge program aimed at nurturing the next generation of MENA film professionals.
The inaugural selection comprises Mohammed Almughanni (Palestine), Faris Alrjoob (Jordan), Leila Basma (Lebanon), Rasha Hosny (Egypt), sibling directorial duo Noel and Michelle Keserwany (Lebanon) and Dessil Mekhtigian (Egypt).
Gaza-born director Mohammed Almughanni has a bachelor’s and master’s in film directing from Łódź Film School in Poland. His most recent short An Orange from Jaffa, about a young Palestinian man trying to cross an Israeli checkpoint to join his mother on the other side, won the Grand Prix in the International Competition of the Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival earlier this year.
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