| 36th Cairo International Film Festival | |
| Opening: | November 9, 2014 |
| Closing: | November 18, 2014 |
| Location: | Cairo Citadel, Cairo, Egypt |
| Films: | 155 |
| Editor In Chief: | Yousra |
The 36th Cairo International Film Festival (ar| مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي السادس والثلاثون) was held from November 9–18, 2014, including 17 films from ten Arab countries. Six films featured were nominated for the 87th Academy Awards the following year.[1] The jury included four male and four female filmmakers representing the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe as well as the disciplines of direction, screenwriting, production, cinematography, and criticism, headed by Egyptian actress Yousra.
Festival management chose Yousra as the first Egyptian jury chair in the history of the Festival.[2] animated and a documentary films also made their first appearances with one of each. Another unprecedented move was hiring an Egyptian designer, Karim Adam, to design the official poster, featuring local actress Nadia Lutfi.[3]
Lutfi received a special Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening ceremony, and the Festival prepared a documentary on her career that was shown on the second day. The first submissions in Festival history opened from the United Arab Emirates (Ali F. Mostafa’s From A to B) and Iran (Abed Abest’s The Corner).[4]
Six Egyptian films were featured at the Festival. The International Features category included Karim Hanafi’s Bab Al-Wadaa (“The Farewell Gate”), starring Salwa Khattab and Ahmed Magdy. The Short Film category featured Ahmed Abdalla’s Décor, starring Kal Naga and Horeya Farghaly, along with Mouhamed Rady’s Wall of Heroism. The Classics category showed a restored version of Henry Barakat’s 1965 film The Sin in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday. Finally, the late director and singer-actor Hussein al-Imam’s black-and-white film Like a Matchstick was screened.[5]
| Title | Director | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bab Al-Wadaa | Karim Hanafi | Egypt | |
| Eyes of a Thief | Palestine | ||
| Through a Lens Darkly | United States | ||
| We Come as Friends | France | ||
| Boy and the World | Brazil | ||
| Charlie's Country | Australia | ||
| Love at First Fight | France | ||
| Red, Blue, Yellow | United Arab Emirates | ||
| Giovanni's Island | Japan | ||
| Forever | Margarita Manda | Greece | |
| And There Was Evening and There Was Morning | Emanuele Caruso | Italy | |
| Sand Dollars | Dominican Republic | ||
| Melbourne | Iran | ||
| Five Star | Keith Miller | United States | |
| Miss Brackets, the Baby-sitter, the Bastard Grandson, and Emma Suarez | Sergio Candel | Spain | |
| The Blinding Sunlight | Yu Liu | China |
| Title | Director | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia/Croatia | |||
| Galicia (Spain) | |||
| Bulgaria | |||
| Japan | ||
| Georgia | |||
| Yassine El Idrissi | Morocco | |
| Italy/Argentina |
The following were unanimously announced: