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CIFF Names Bosnian Director to Head Official Competition Jury

(FILE) Bosnian film director Danis Tanovic. AFP
(FILE) Bosnian film director Danis Tanovic. AFP
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CIFF Names Bosnian Director to Head Official Competition Jury

(FILE) Bosnian film director Danis Tanovic. AFP
(FILE) Bosnian film director Danis Tanovic. AFP

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) announced the appointment of the renowned Bosnian director Danis Tanović as the president of the Official Competition Jury for its 45th edition, scheduled between November 15 and 24.

This choice was made to “bring in prominent figures from the global film industry” to take part in the festival, and to foster CIFF as a platform for expertise exchange among emerging Egyptian, Arab, and international filmmakers participating in the event, according to a statement issued by CIFF on Sunday.

“We are delighted to host esteemed international names at the 45th Cairo Film Festival. Danis Tanović is one of the most important cinema figures in the world, and his works won many awards at prestigious festivals,” Festival President Hussein Fahmy said.

Danis Tanović is one of the best directors and screenwriters in Eastern Europe and the world. Among his renowned works is “No Man’s Land,” which won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2001. He also directed films such as “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker” and “Death in Sarajevo,” which won the Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale in 2016. Tanović is the only director from Bosnia and Herzegovina to win an Academy Award.

Amir Ramsis, director of CIFF, said: “I am proud to have Danis Tanović as the president of the International Jury at the Festival in its 45th edition. I am delighted that our festival always gives its audience the opportunity to engage with names that have made the history of cinema.”

The upcoming edition of the Egyptian festival celebrates short films given their growing audience, and the CIFF’s selection to qualify one film for the Oscars. It also announced that it’s awarding a money prize of $5,000 to the best short Arabic film partaking in the official competition, and decided to dedicate a new category to the promising Egyptian filmmakers- a non-competitive segment that showcases new work experiences of emerging directors.

The 45th edition of CIFF will honor esteemed director Yousry Nasrallah with the Golden Pyramid Award for his outstanding journey, and Actor Ahmed Ezz with the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence.

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) is one of the finest festivals in the Arab world and Africa, and the only festival in the region registered in category A of the International Federation of Producers in Prasles, France, FIAPF.

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Varieties

US: Tourist Arrested after Video Shows Rock Hurled at Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal's Head

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
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US: Tourist Arrested after Video Shows Rock Hurled at Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal's Head

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii

A tourist who drew widespread condemnation in Hawaii after a witness recorded him chucking a coconut-sized rock at “Lani,” a beloved, endangered Hawaiian monk seal off a Maui beach, was arrested Wednesday by federal agents.

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, of Covington, Washington, is charged with harassing a protected animal, the US attorney's office in Honolulu said, adding that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration special agents arrested him near Seattle. He was scheduled to appear in US District Court in Seattle on Thursday.

The court docket didn’t list an attorney, and a person who answered the phone at a number associated with Lytvynchuk declined to comment.

A state Department of Land and Natural Resources officer last week investigated a report of Hawaiian monk seal harassment in Lahaina, the community that was largely destroyed by a deadly wildfire in 2023. A witness showed the officer video of the seal swimming in shallow water while a man watched from shore, The Associated Press reported.

“In the cellphone video, the man can be seen holding a large rock with one hand, aiming, and throwing it directly at the monk seal," prosecutors said a criminal complaint. The rock, described by a witness as the size of a coconut, narrowly missed the seal's head, but caused the “animal to abruptly alter its behavior,” the complaint said.

When a witness confronted the man, he said "he did not care and was ‘rich’ enough to pay any fines," the complaint said.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, in a video posted on social media after the incident, vowed consequences for anyone who harms Hawaii's wildlife.

“Many of our residents know her, watch over her and care deeply about her well-being,” he said. “Lani, we have your back.”

Lytvynchuk is charged with harassing and attempting to harass an endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Hawaiian monk seals are a critically endangered species. Only 1,600 remain in the wild.

If convicted, Lytvynchuk, faces up to one year in prison for each charge. He also faces a fine of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act and a fine of up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Varieties

Historic Swiss Solar-powered Plane Crashes Into Sea

(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
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Historic Swiss Solar-powered Plane Crashes Into Sea

(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)

The experimental plane Solar Impulse 2, which completed a historic round-the-world trip in 2016 without using jet fuel, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico recently, its owner revealed.

Flown by Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 circumnavigated the globe in 17 stages, covering a remarkable 26,700 miles (43,000 kilometers) across four continents, two oceans and three seas, in 23 days of flying without using a drop of fuel.

Three years after the globe-trotting flight, the solar-powered vessel was sold to Skydweller Aero, which converted the aircraft into a drone to carry out "controlled ditching," the company said in a press release issued Tuesday.

Skydweller Aero said Solar Impulse 2 took off from Stennis, Mississippi on April 26 but crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on May 4, AFP reported.

"Ultimately, a record-breaking flight of 8 days and 14 minutes validates the reality of perpetual, solar-powered flight in a military mission-relevant environment," the company said, in reference to a US Navy exercise in which the vessel was used.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the accident.

Varieties

'Ocean Dream' Blue-green Diamond Sells for More Than $17 Million at Christie's

A Christie's employee displays "The Ocean Dream," the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond, weighting 5.50 carats, during a preview at Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
A Christie's employee displays "The Ocean Dream," the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond, weighting 5.50 carats, during a preview at Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
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'Ocean Dream' Blue-green Diamond Sells for More Than $17 Million at Christie's

A Christie's employee displays "The Ocean Dream," the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond, weighting 5.50 carats, during a preview at Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)
A Christie's employee displays "The Ocean Dream," the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond, weighting 5.50 carats, during a preview at Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

A 5.5-carat triangular-cut diamond billed as the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond known to exist sold for more than 13.5 million Swiss francs ($17.3 million) on Wednesday, Christie’s said, calling it a record price for a stone of its kind sold at auction.

The “Ocean Dream,” the standout offer at the auction house's Geneva sale of jewelry, was found in Central Africa in the 1990s. The price easily topped the presale estimate to fetch 7-10 million francs (around $9-13 million), The Associated Press reported.

Rahul Kadakia, president of Christie's Asia Pacific, said that an unspecified private client was the buyer, and the stone took about 20 minutes to sell — an indication that interest was high.

The price was more than double that of the roughly $8.5 million that the gem, which was featured among rare colored diamonds at the Smithsonian Splendour of Diamonds Exhibition in 2003, sold for at Christie's in 2014.

“A stellar result worthy of the world’s rarest blue-green diamond,” Tobias Kormind, managing director of online jeweler 77 Diamonds, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, a 6-carat fancy vivid blue diamond at a Geneva auction at Sotheby's didn't sell.

The auction house said that the rare stone unearthed from South Africa’s famed Cullinan mine had come in with a presale estimate of 7.2 million to 9.6 million francs ($9.2 million to $12.3 million).

“Although the diamond didn’t find a buyer during the auction, we are now in conversations with several interested parties and are confident that it will find a new home soon,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

Both houses say collectors are increasingly drawn to rare, colored diamonds, which make up only a fraction of all the diamonds mined around the world.