The ninth El Gouna Film Festival is due to run from 15 to 23 October 2026 in El Gouna, the resort town on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. At the festival’s press conference, reported on 25 September, the artistic director Andrew Mohsen said that this edition features ten Arab films, the largest number of Arab films the festival has presented since it was launched.
The programme also includes a tribute to the Egyptian director Mohamed Khan on the tenth anniversary of his death, and a selection of international titles that have already won prizes at Cannes, Berlin and other festivals this year.
A festival by the sea
El Gouna Film Festival was founded in 2017 by the Sawiris family, the developers of the resort town that hosts it. Over nine editions, it has become one of the Arab world’s autumn film gatherings, taking place in a seaside setting rather than in a big city.
That setting shapes the event. Screenings take place in a resort on the Red Sea rather than in a capital, which lets a film lover combine a festival with a few days by the water.
The record Arab selection
The headline number is ten. According to Egypt Today, which reported Mohsen’s remarks, this is the biggest group of Arab films in the festival’s history. The report does not name the ten, and the festival’s official programme is the place to find them. Readers planning a visit should check it once the full schedule is published.
The figure matters because a festival’s selection is a statement about where it sees its audience and its future. At El Gouna, which sits between Egypt’s long film tradition and the newer cinema of the Gulf, a record Arab section is a sign of confidence in the region’s filmmakers.
Honouring Mohamed Khan
The tribute to Mohamed Khan marks ten years since his death. Khan, who lived from 1942 to 2016, was a leading figure in Egypt’s new realist cinema of the 1980s, a movement that turned the camera towards the lives of ordinary people in Cairo and other cities.
The festival’s announcement does not say which of his films will be shown.
Prize winners from Cannes and Berlin
The first ten international titles were announced on 19 August. They include several recent festival winners, and the festival has not yet published the rest of its international selection in the reports this preview draws on:
- Fatherland, by Pawel Pawlikowski, who shared the best director prize at Cannes.
- Yellow Letters, by İlker Çatak, winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin.
- All of a Sudden, by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, for which Virginie Efira and Toa Okamoto shared the best actress prize at Cannes.
- Queen at Sea, by Lance Hammer, starring Juliette Binoche, which won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at Berlin.
- The Guest, by Mads Mengel, which won best director at Karlovy Vary.
- Hold Onto Me, by Myrsini Aristidou, which won the audience award at Sundance.
Taken together, the list gives audiences at the Red Sea a preview of the year’s most discussed festival cinema.
CineGouna and the next generation
CineGouna is the festival’s industry platform, and its numbers have grown. It received 310 film projects, of which 11 were selected to compete for a total of $310,000 in funding. The industry programme has 30 events, including sessions on artificial intelligence in film.
The platform is where an Arab filmmaker with a script or a rough cut can meet producers, distributors and funders. Selection is competitive: 11 of 310 projects is roughly one in 28.
Planning a visit
The essentials, as reported:
- Dates: 15 to 23 October 2026, nine days in all.
- Place: El Gouna, on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
- Artistic director: Andrew Mohsen.
- Arab films: ten, a record for the festival.
- Tribute: Mohamed Khan, ten years after his death.
- CineGouna: 310 projects received, 11 selected, $310,000 in total funding and 30 industry events.
The dates have been announced. Visitors should check the festival’s official programme for screening times, for the names of the ten Arab films and for the details of the Khan tribute, since none of these appeared in the reports this preview draws on.
Mohsen’s press conference was reported by Egypt Today, and Misr Connect carried the first list of international titles. No other statements from the festival were available when this preview was written.
What is already clear is the scale. A record number of Arab films, a major homage to a pioneer of realist cinema and a funding programme for new projects make this ninth edition a significant date on the autumn calendar.
Sources: Egypt Today, Misr Connect