The first place goes to Ahmed Jad Al Karim in Short Story and Amr El Maadawy in Film processing
The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) hosted a ceremony for the iRead Awards, a screenwriting and short story talent competition held in collaboration with the iRead Initiative.
During the celebration held Monday evening, Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed Gad Al Karim who won first place received a Prize worth 25 thousand Egyptian pounds for the short story competition prize. Mahmoud Ashour Abdel Wahab won the second place with a prize worth 15 thousand pounds, while Ahmed Khalifa won a purchase voucher From Virgin Store libraries worth 10,000 pounds after winning the third place.
The First Prize of the Film Processing Competition, worth 50,000 pounds, went to Amr Abdallah El Maadawy. Ramy Mohamed El Sheikh won the second place, while Bilal Hosni El Sayed won the third place.
The iRead Initiative announced the selection of the top 20 of the works presented and printed them in a collection of stories in Dar Al Shorouk, which sponsors the iRead Awards, along with IFM stars, Virgin Megastore, My Library, Nespresso and LARIBA, Studio Saleem and Abjad.
Commenting on the first edition of the iRead Awards, Mohamed Hefzy, president of the Cairo Film Festival, said: “Having the ability to write a short story is an important indicator of the possibility of telling a film, whether long or short or necessarily a series, highlighting all the elements that nurture the film industry in the Arab world, and the script adapted from one of the most important elements that include films to tell stories worthy of the novel, and in the Cairo Festival to support the talents of authorship, which makes us proud to launch the iRead Awards contest for the Cairo International Film Festival, with the aim of discovering, encouraging and supporting these talents. “
Engy El Sabban, CEO of Victory Link and iRead Partner, says that this competition was an idea in the first place in support of the role of culture in Egyptian society, and in order to raise awareness and select new talent.
The Egyptian cultural climate is rich and supports its values, pointing out that the role of technology is not inseparable from the cultural role, but on the contrary, both must be complementary to the other.
Shereen Rashid, Managing Director of Evolution and the owner of iRead initiative, emphasized that the competition aims to highlight the artistic and creative abilities of future writers and authors of all ages, considering art as Egypt’s soft power and means to raise cultural awareness and improve social thought.
Commenting on the competitions, writer and scriptwriter Ahmed Murad commented: ‘Feeding literature and cinema with new and sophisticated pens capable of moving stagnant water, and thus enriching awareness is a task I find in the importance of reading itself, where talent testing is the key step to motivate and discover a new Naguib Mahfouz to this era.’
The jury of the film processing competition includes filmmaker and author Tamer Mohsen, Jordanian artist Saba Mubarak, Tunisian artist Dhafer El Abidine, film analyst Alaa Karakouti, and writer and scriptwriter Ahmed Mourad.
The jury of the short story competition includes Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Culture, Dr Hisham Azmy, Engineer Yasser Shaker, CEO and Managing Director of Orange Egypt, writer and scriptwriter Ahmed Mourad, Hala Hegazy, Managing Director and CEO of Nile Radio Production, and the Egyptian novelist and storyteller. Hassan Kamal, critic and Egyptian novelist Dr Shirin Abu Naga.
TunisianMonitorOnline
