International Women's Film Festival Opens Saturday with the Dutch Film 'Water Children'

The International Women's Film Festivalpresents 35 films from more than 25 countries this year, in its 6thround that will open on the 16th of November. The openingfilm will be the award winning Dutch film “Water Children”directed by Aliona van der Horst. The film will be screened in theEgyptian Opera House's Artistic Creativity Center at 7 pm.

The festival features a selection ofthe best feature, short and animation films and documentaries made bywomen worldwide across the past two years. The screenings, to whichinvitations are open and free, will be held in the ArtisticCreativity Center, the AUC's Ewart Memorial Hall, and the FalakyTheater, and he films will bear Arabic subtitles.

Through a period of seven days,Egyptian audience will be offered watching a group of the mostacknowledged international movies, and will also have the chance toattend conferences held after the screenings that will include someof the film directors who will be attending the 'Among WomenFilmmakers' festival.

Among the films set to screen at thefestival is the British “Salma,” directed by Kim Longinotto, thePalestinian “Lama Sheftak” (When I Saw You) directed by AnnemarieJacir, The Swedish “Belleville Baby” directed by Mia Engberg, theinternational co-production “The Prize” directed by PaulaMarkovitch, and “900 Days” directed by Jessica Gorter fromNetherlands.

In regard to the works of directorNabiha Lotfy, the festival will feature a screening of a group of herselected documentaries, including “Lea'b Eyal” (Children Play)and “Taheya Karioka.”

The festivalwill be highlighting works from Netherlands this year, screening agroup of recent award-winning films from dutch women. The dutchdirector and choreographer Anne Teresa DeKeersmaeker will be lecturing in a symposium scheduled during thefestival on the 17thof November at 7 p.m.

In gratitudeto the role of Egyptian audience in sustaining the festival'spopularity in the past years, and the festival's trust in theirevaluation of the participating films, the “Among Women Filmmakers”festival will be presenting a 36,000 EGP best film prize. The winnerwill be the film with the highest number of audience votes.

The InternationalWomen's Film Festival is organised by “ArabicKlaket” production company in co-operation with the Culture, Mediaand Development Association (Spain), and is funded by the BasqueGovernment (Spain), the Kingdom of Netherlands Embassy in Cairo, theAmerican University of Cairo, and the Spanish Embassy, in addition toother local and international foundations.