Japanese director Naomi Kawase will preside over the international competition jury at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), which will take place from November 13 to 22 this year.
Festival president Hussein Fahmy welcomed Kawase’s participation, confirming her role as head of the international competition jury as a valuable addition to the upcoming edition’s activities. Fahmy added that Kawase has a distinguished career and extensive experience that has qualified her to win prestigious awards from various international festivals.
Festival director Amir Ramses said that the presence of a cinematic talent such as Naomi Kawase as the head of the international competition jury is a continuation of the successful tradition established by CIFF over the years of inviting the world’s greatest filmmakers to this position. Ramses also added that the presence of an award-winning female director with such a distinguished career and rich filmography is a great inspiration for women filmmakers in Egypt.
The prominent Japanese director and screenwriter has gained worldwide fame after achieving many honourable successes in her career which started in the late 1980s.
Born and raised in Nara, Japan, Naomi Kawase continues to make her films there today. Her commitment to capturing “reality” through film, beyond the simplistic dichotomies of documentary and fiction, has been acclaimed worldwide.
She is the youngest person to have won the Caméra d’Or (for best first feature film) at the Cannes Film Festival for Moe no Suzaku (1997). She has also won three awards from the prestigious French festival for her films Mogari no Mori (2007) and Hikari (2017) and was also awarded the Carrosse d’Or at the Directors’ Fortnight (2009).
After shooting her two feature films Vision (2018) and Asa ga Kuru (2020), she was appointed official director of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and is thematic producer of the Osaka-Kansai 2025 World Expo. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and has been named an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.
TunisianMonitorOnline
