36th Cairo Film Festival Delayed to Preserve its Reputation, Says Critic

Film critic Ramy Abdel Razek has said that the decision to postpone the 36th Cairo International Film Festival was the best decision for a number of reasons, among them the political events in Egypt, time constraints on the film selection process, as well as complications in settling on a schedule for the parallel program for the festival's guests.

Ramy, a candidate to run some of the festival's programs, attributed the time constraint issue to the Minister of Culture Mohamed Saber Arab, who badly wanted to remove Amir el Amary as the head of the festival to settle a personal score between them, which caused a big delay for the festival administration.

He added that the delay was necessary in order to maintain the festival's reputation, saying it was impossible to prepare for a festival of this size in two months only. This year's festival is headed by Suhair Abdel Qader, who helmed the festival for the past three years. He claims last year she sacrifice the reputation of the festival by not cancelling or postponing, which was evident in the weak turnout. The 2012 festival was held in the midst of violent clashes between protesters and security forces in November and December, and was mired in arguments over whether to cancel altogether or not.

Ramy pointed out that all the important festivals make preparations throughout the entire year, stressing that this is what should happen for the next round of the festival. They plan to designate a permanent headquarters for the jury to screen films for selection. Ramy denounced the fact that after 36 years of the festival running, they still do not have a permanent headquarters from which to manage its affairs.