Gaza International Film Festival for Women's Cinema will take place in Gaza City
“This is not a festival about Gaza, but with Gaza, and from Gaza to the world.”
A total of 79 films will participate in the first Gaza International Festival for Women's Cinema, including documentaries, short films and feature films from 28 countries which will depict the lives, voices and struggles of women.. The festival will provide a window to the outside world for a population that has been under siege for too long.
Dr Ezzaldeen Shalh, a filmmaker and holder of a PhD in Cinema and former president of the Jerusalem Film Festival and the International Union of Arab Cinema is the founder of the festival. Dr Shalh said: “This is not a festival about Gaza, but with Gaza, and from Gaza to the world.Kaouther Ben Hania's The Voice of Hind Rajab will be screened for the first time in the Arab world. "
The fiction jury is chaired by French writer-director Céline Sciamma, joined by Moroccan director Mohamed El Younsi, Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, Palestinian writer-director Fajr Yacoub, and Algerian actress and theatre director Moni Boualam.
Annemarie Jacir, director of the film Palestine 36, which is in the running for the Oscars, representing Palestine, chairs the documentary jury, along with Bahraini producer Bassim Al Thawadi, Italian producer Graziella Bildesheim (president of European Women's Audiovisual Network), Kuwaiti director Abdulaziz Al-Sayegh and Cuban editor Maricet Sancristobal.
Graziella said: "This festival is a dream come true. Thanks to the sumud of the Gazawi filmmaker friends who came up with the idea many months ago and the cooperation of supportive international communities, we are able now to screen films from many different countries foir the population in Gaza. And this is only the beginning!"