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Egypt, Germany Bag Most Awards at Inaugural Hurghada Youth Film Festival

Winners at the festival pose with their awards. (Hurghada Youth Film Festival)
Winners at the festival pose with their awards. (Hurghada Youth Film Festival)
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Egypt, Germany Bag Most Awards at Inaugural Hurghada Youth Film Festival

Winners at the festival pose with their awards. (Hurghada Youth Film Festival)
Winners at the festival pose with their awards. (Hurghada Youth Film Festival)

Egypt and Germany have bagged most of the awards at the inaugural Hurghada Youth Film Festival, which concluded on Monday in a ceremony that was attended by a number of Arabic and Egyptian artists, including Hani Salama, Sulaf Fawakherji, and filmmaker Mohammed Abdelaziz.

German film “Night Guard” won the Golden Award for Best Feature Film, while the Silver Award for Best Feature Film went to French film “Sons of Ramses”, which will represent France in the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars 2024. Egyptian film “The Abbasid History” won the Bronze Award for Best Feature Film, and Croatian filmmaker Neven Hitrec won the Best Director Award for his film “The Diary of Paulina”.

In the short film category, Egyptian film “Letter from Unknown” won the Golden award, Syrian film “Photograph” won the silver award, while the Portuguese film “Anna Morphos” won the bronze award.

The concluding ceremony celebrated the 93rd National Day of Saudi Arabia and honored the Saudi delegation that included novelist Abeer Samkari and producer Abdullah Badib.

Festival President, scriptwriter Mohamed el Bassosy said he was delighted with the success the Hurghada Youth Film Festival. “Everything I dreamed of for the first edition has been accomplished, and I hope for more in the forthcoming edition. A few months ago, no one had imagined a youth film festival in Hurghada, but today, we did it,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He revealed that preparations are underway for the 2024 edition, saying the organizers were seeking broader participation and increasing the number of guests.

Bassosy thanked actor Hussein Fahmi, president of the Cairo International Film Festival, for signing a collaboration protocol with the Hurghada Youth Film Festival.

“It was an amazing surprise, and we must thank the ministry of culture for signing an agreement with an emerging festival. According to the protocol, we will be sending a number of the Hurghada festival young participants to train at the Cairo Cinema Center, while the Cairo Festival will provide us with prominent guests and foreign films,” he said.

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‘Mufasa’ and ‘Sonic 3’ Rule First Weekend of 2025

Director Barry Jenkins at the premiere of "Mufasa: The Lion King." (AFP via Getty Images)
Director Barry Jenkins at the premiere of "Mufasa: The Lion King." (AFP via Getty Images)
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‘Mufasa’ and ‘Sonic 3’ Rule First Weekend of 2025

Director Barry Jenkins at the premiere of "Mufasa: The Lion King." (AFP via Getty Images)
Director Barry Jenkins at the premiere of "Mufasa: The Lion King." (AFP via Getty Images)

The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa” claimed the No. 1 spot on the North American box office charts over the first weekend of 2025.

The photorealistic “Lion King” prequel earned $23.8 million in its third weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” which has dominated the past two weekends, wasn’t far behind.

“Sonic 3” stayed close with a 3-day estimate of $21.2 million, bringing its total domestic earnings to $187.5 million and helping the overall franchise cross $1 billion worldwide. “Mufasa’s” running total is slightly less, with $169.2 million.

In third place, Focus Features’ “Nosferatu” remake defied the fate of so many of its genre predecessors and fell only 39% in its second weekend. Horror films typically fall sharply after the first weekend and anything less than a 50% decline is notable.

“Nosferatu,” which added 140 screens, claimed $13.2 million in ticket sales, bringing its running total to $69.4 million since its Christmas debut. The film, directed by Robert Eggers, already surpassed its reported production budget of $50 million, though that figure does not account for marketing and promotion expenses).

No new wide releases opened this weekend, leaving the box office top 10 once again to holdovers from previous weeks. Several have been in theaters since Thanksgiving. One of those, “Moana 2,” claimed the No. 4 spot for Disney in its sixth weekend in theaters. The animated sequel earned another $12.4 million, bumping its global total to $960.5 million.

The Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” dipped only slightly in its second weekend, bringing in $8.1 million. With $41.7 million total, it's Searchlight's highest grossing film since Disney acquired the company in 2019.

A24’s drama “Babygirl," which added 49 locations, held steady at $4.5 million.

Another Thanksgiving leftover, “Wicked,” rounded out the top five. Universal’s movie musical was made available to purchase on VOD on Jan. 31, but still earned another $10.2 million from theaters. The movie is up for several awards at Sunday’s Golden Globes, including nominations for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, best motion picture musical or comedy and “cinematic and box office achievement,” which last year went to “Barbie.”

Also in theaters this weekend was the IMAX re-release of David Fincher’s 4K restoration of “Seven,” which earned just over $1 million from 200 locations.

The 2025 box office year is already off to a better start than 2024, up around 20% from the same weekend last year.