23 countries, including seven Arab nations, will compete for the awards at the 12th Cairo International Festival for Children Cinema, which is to begin on Thursday, head of the festival announced.
The festival head and president of the Arab Artists Union, Fawzi Fahmi, told the press that Arab participation in the festival includes Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon. The categories include narrative films, short films, television programs and cartoons.
“The Arab participation in the festival has reached an unprecedented high this year, and the total number of countries participating represent 120 different works in the five award categories,” Fahmi said.
He added that the festival, which will extend over a period of one week, will take a closer look at Indian films, showing 18 films as part of the festival's activities. Also highlighted at the festival will be Iranian films, which total 35 films to be shown during the festivities.
The festival will be inaugurated with the Swedish film Polt’s Friend which participated in Berlin Festival in addition to Iranian, Spanish, Danish, Indian and Chinese films.
The new festival session will be enormous as it will be held in the same section set for Cairo International Film Festival in order to screen the participating prize winning children’s films from all over the world.
The Palestinian director Liana Bader will participate with her latest film entitled al Tair al Akhdar (Green Bird) which depicts the lives of Palestinian children in the Palestinian City of Ramallah as it monitors through their eyes their hopes, fears and compelling desire for resistance and the liberation of their homeland, Palestine.
Bader sent a message to the festival management requesting them to hold a meeting with the stars after the film’s screening is over. The management responded to her call and welcomed the director and the children film stars -- Albawaba.com
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