Luxor festival to honour filmmakers Abdel-Salam and Sembène

The Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) 2014 will be dedicated to filmmakers Shadi Abdel-Salam from Egypt and Osman Sembène from Senegal. The festival, which will take place on 16-24 March 2014, will focus on the contribution of Senegalese cinema to the African film industry.   LAFF director, the screenwriter Sayed Fouad, said the festival had so far received 191 entries – including feature length, documentary, animated and short films – from 34 African countries. In addition, films from countries outside Africa, such as France, Brazil, the United States and Palestine, that were co-produced with African countries, will be competing in both the feature and short films competitions, as well as in the 'Freedom Films' selection, in which awards are given in the name of journalist Al-Husseiny Abo Deif, who died in the Ittihadeya presidential palace clashes in December 2012. LAFF was launched in 2012 as an attempt to strengthen the presence of African cinema in Egypt, and to decentralise Egypt's cultural agenda, moving events beyond the borders of Cairo and Alexandria to other historically rich places in Egypt, like Luxor. Source: Ahram Online