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Cairo Film Festival to Screen Internationally Acclaimed Films

A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
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Cairo Film Festival to Screen Internationally Acclaimed Films

A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour
A screenshot from Gaza Mon Amour

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced the films that will feature in its 42nd edition, scheduled to run from December 2 to10.

In a press release obtained by Asharq Al-Awasat, the festival’s president Mohamed Hefzy said that this year’s edition would screen the premiers of some of the biggest films alongside award-winning and critically acclaimed movies from other major festivals.

Nomadland, an American drama awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and The Toronto International Film Festival Grolsch People’s Choice Award, will feature as part of the festival’s formal screenings and will not be part of the competition for any awards.

Directed by Cloe Zhao, the film stars Oscar-award winning actress Frances McDormand and is set during the great recession; it tells the story of a woman in her sixties who decides to take a journey through the American West and live as a modern-day nomad.

The Disciple will also be screened without being part of the competition for awards. It won this year’s International Film Critics Awards (FIPRESCI Prize) in Venice. Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane and produced by Oscar-award winning director Alfonso Cuaron, the film tells the tale of a young Indian man who dedicates his life to singing classical Indian music and the challenges he faces along the way.

Two other films that will be screened in the formal section are the German-French film Undine, directed by Christian Pitzold, which won the FIPRESCI Prize, while the lead actress Paula Beer Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin, and Mogul Mowgli, a British-American production that follows the journey of a British rapper of Pakistani origins who falls ill as he is preparing for his first world tour.

Two years after his previous film, Jumpan, was screened during the festival’s 40th edition in 2018, Ivan I. Tverdovsky will participate with his latest film, The Conference, which is part of the international competition.

Gaza Mon Amour, among this year’s most prominent Arabic films, is also going to be screened. A Palestinian French, German and Portuguese production directed by two twins, Arab and Tarzan Nasser, the film premiered as part of the Venice International Film Festival’s Horizons section before it winning the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award (NEPTAC) at the Toronto Festival.

Set in Gaza, it follows a lonely older man who is secretly in love with a dressmaker, and as he tries to find a way to confess his love for her, he discovers an ancient statue that changes his life forever.
CIFF had previously announced that it will honor the Egyptian screenwriter Wahid Hamed with the Golden Pyramid Award for Lifetime Achievement during the opening ceremony and that its Cairo Days of Film Industry will support for 15 fictional and documentary projects from 12 Arab countries.

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Varieties

Rain Checks Spread of Japan Wildfire 

This photo taken and released on March 6, 2025 by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency shows firefighters walking amongst burnt trees as they battle a wildfire in Ofunato city of Iwate Prefecture. (Handout / Fire and Disaster Management Agency / AFP)
This photo taken and released on March 6, 2025 by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency shows firefighters walking amongst burnt trees as they battle a wildfire in Ofunato city of Iwate Prefecture. (Handout / Fire and Disaster Management Agency / AFP)
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Rain Checks Spread of Japan Wildfire 

This photo taken and released on March 6, 2025 by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency shows firefighters walking amongst burnt trees as they battle a wildfire in Ofunato city of Iwate Prefecture. (Handout / Fire and Disaster Management Agency / AFP)
This photo taken and released on March 6, 2025 by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency shows firefighters walking amongst burnt trees as they battle a wildfire in Ofunato city of Iwate Prefecture. (Handout / Fire and Disaster Management Agency / AFP)

Rain appears to have halted the spread of Japan's worst wildfire in more than half a century, officials said Thursday, as residents expressed relief the smoke was gone.

The blaze had raged around the northern city of Ofunato for more than a week, killing one person and forcing more than 4,500 residents to evacuate their homes.

The rain, which began falling Wednesday following a record dry period, had helped firefighting efforts, a local fire official said.

"Thanks in part to the rain, the situation has subsided to an extent," Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told a regular briefing.

"We realize many residents are aching to return home," he said, adding that evacuation orders would be lifted when safety was confirmed.

Several columns of white smoke and fire sources persisted during the day, officials said.

"The fires haven't been fully put out yet," another Ofunato official told the briefing.

Residents were more positive, however.

"I'm relieved to see no smoke", one elderly woman told public broadcaster NHK, while a man said he was "very happy that we had rain yesterday".

The wildfire burned about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) -- around half the size of Manhattan -- making it Japan's largest in more than 50 years, surpassing the 2,700 hectares engulfed by a 1975 fire on Hokkaido island.

Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.

Then in February, Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches) of rainfall -- breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and well below the average of 41 millimeters.

At least 78 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.

The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since a 1970s peak.

However, there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.

Greg Mullins, a former fire and rescue commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales, told AFP this fire as well as the recent ones in Los Angeles were "highly unusual" because they took place in the cooler winter months.

"In both cases the fires were preceded by hot summers, which increased evaporation and drying of vegetation, followed by large rainfall deficits that parched the landscape," he said.

"This is a common by-product of climate change," said Mullins, a founder of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group.