Aswan International Women's Film Festival was founded in 2017 by Egyptian screenwriter Mohamed Abdel Khalek. It is the first festival geared towards teaching filmmaking to youth in the Aswan region.

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Edited by tony wild
Cinema news section
11 March 2023 - ASWAN, Egypt

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South Korean film "Jeong-sun", depicting a female victim of a digital sex crime, was awarded Best Film in the Feature Film Competition of the seventh edition of Egypt's Aswan International Women Film Festival (AlWFF).

Following a red-carpet closing ceremony on Friday evening, the film, written and directed by Jihye Jeong, was hailed by the jury led by French director Julie Bertuccelli as "perfectly and simply executed." It tells the story of a reserved woman who stands against the shame and mortification brought by destructive social media where an intimate video of hers is leaked.

Meanwhile, the Best Director award went to French-Swiss filmmaker Ursula Meier for her The Line, the Best Actor award was handed to German actor Tedros Teclebrhan for his role in the Swiss film "Semret" directed by Caterina Mona, while the Best Actress award was won by Lucia Castro for her part in Argentinian drama "Paula" directed by Florencia Wehbe.

The Egyptian documentary "Big Little Women" by Egyptian-Swiss director Nadia Fares won three awards in AlWFF 2023. It was named Best Film in the Egyptian Film Competition, won the European Union Award for the best Euro-Mediterranean film dealing with women's issues, and got a special mention by the jury of the Feature Film Competition.

Fares said that the success of the documentary is a success of the message it conveys, expressing happiness that the audiences were touched by the film.

"It's about the courage of women, how patriarchy affects women, and how they struggle against patriarchy not only in Egypt but also in Switzerland in Europe," the director of "Big Little Women," told Xinhua.

The seventh AlWFF gathered 61 films across the globe, with the aim of shedding light on women's rights and causes through art, as well as holding filmmaking workshops to train interested and talented young people from Aswan and other southern provinces.

Hassan Abo el-Ela, the festival's director, said that AIWFF is dedicated to raising issues that concern women, whether through films or symposiums, noting it coaches females to work as trainers on different cinema arts in Aswan villages.

"I believe this is a very ambitious project to empower women in Upper Egypt culturally and artistically," the festival's director told Xinhua.