Egyptian Directors
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Youssef Chahine (born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1926) started studying in a friars' school, and then turned to Victoria College until the High School Certificate. After one year in the University of Alexandria, he moved to the U.S. and spent two years at the Pasadena Play House, taking courses on film and dramatic arts. After coming back to Egypt, cinematographer Alevise Orfanelli helped him into the film business. His film debut was Baba Amin (1950): one year later, with Son of the Nile (1951) he was first invited to the Cannes Film festival. In 1970, he was awarded a Golden Tanit at the Carthage Festival. With Le moineau (1973), he directed the first Egypt-Algeria co-production. He won a Silver Bear in Berlin for Alexandria... Why? (1979), the first installment in what proved to be an autobiographic trilogy, completed with Hadduta Masriya (1982)(An Egyptian Story (1982)) and Alexandria: Again and Forever (1989).
In 1992, Jacques Lassalle proposed him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie Française: Chahine chose to adapt Albert Camus' "Caligula," which proved hugely successful. The same year he started writing Al-mohager (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical character of Joseph, son of Jacob. This had long been a dream-project, and he finally got to shoot it in 1994. In 1997, 46 years and 5 invitations later, he was again selected Hors Competition in Cannes with Destiny (1997).- Director
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Marwan Hamed is an Egyptian prominent filmmaker who possesses an extensively auspicious repertoire that extends over 20 years of experience in producing and directing films, in addition to directing over 300 commercials, TV drama series, and music videos. Marwan's debut feature The Yacoubian Building (2006) was the most expensive film ever made in the history of Egyptian cinema at the time and screened at some of the world's most prestigious film festivals, winning numerous awards.
In 2014, Marwan directed The Blue Elephant, which reaped several awards at many film festivals, and in 2019, he directed the film's second installment Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers. The film dominated the box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in Egyptian history at the time.
His latest film Kira & El Gen - written by Ahmed Mourad - is a historical drama set in the 1920s. The film, which is based on Mourad's best-selling novel 1919, is now officially the highest-grossing film in the history of Egyptian cinema, with revenues exceeding EGP 110m.- Director
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Sherif is an Egyptian director, screenwriter and producer. He graduated from the Higher Institute for Cinema in 1982 and he is the son of director Sa'ad 'Arafa in addition to being an elder brother to director 'Amr 'Arafa. Sherif began his cinema career in 1987 when he directed the film "al-Aqzam Qadimoon" ("The Dwarfs are Coming"), the screenplay for that title was authored by Maher 'Awwad. Thereafter Sherif presented the film "al-Daragah al-Thanniyah" ("The Second Degree") with performers Soa'ad Hosny and Ahmed Zakky but the work was not a success among audiences. The director was the first to notice the talents of many performers who include ( Mohamed Sa'ad - Ahmed Helmy - Mohamed Heneidy - Kareem 'Abd Al 'Azeez - Ahmed Makky - Mahmoud 'Abd Al Ghany - Haitham Ahmed Zakky - 'Alaa Waly al-Deen - Mona Zakky - Nour - Sullaf Fawakhragy - Gamal Suleiman). The large number of talent discoveries attributed to Sherif 'Arafa have indicated that he has a special eye for fledgling performers. The director has worked with major performers from the outset of his career, performers of the likes of Soa'ad Hosny, Ahmed Zakky and 'Adel Imam. He also discovered and presented several of the well known youthful faces in cinema, names such as 'Alaa Waly al-Deen, Mohamed Heneidy, Mona Zakky, Nour, Mohamed Sa'ad, Ahmed Helmy, Haitham Helmy, Ahmed Zakky and many others. Sherif has also produced several cinema and television productions such as the film "Halim" and the television series "Tamer wa Shawqqiyah", "Lahazat Harija" ("Critical Moments") and the program "al-Nas wa Ana" ("The People and Myself") through his private production company Partner Pro. Moreover Sherif has also directed several television commercials for well known products such as Pepsi and Chipsy. Sherif made a forceful entry into the world of television production in 2006 when he produced three works, the two television series "Tamer wa Shawqqiyah" and "Lahazat Hariga" ("Critical Moments") and the program "al-Nas wa Ana" ("The People and Myself"). That last production saw him collaborate with other producers from Egypt and the United States. Sherif 'Arafa has directed several cinema titles that were milestones in the history of Egyptian cinema, titles such as "Teyoor al-Zalam" ("The Birds of Darkness" ), "al-Nazir" ("The Manager"), "Mafia" and "Halim".- Director
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One of the outstanding leaders of the students' movement in eighties. Head of Students' Union - Zagazig University - Banha Branch, 1988-1989. Obtained Bachelor of Engineering, Department of Electronic and Electrical communication Engineering in 1990. Head of the Film Commission, the Supreme Council of Culture in 2012. Member of the 50-Member Committee for drafting Egypt's Constitution in 2013 Participation in students' activities launched relationship between the Director and senior politicians, cultured and creative characters in Egypt, such as Youssef Shahin who advised him to work in cinema when he felt that he enjoys talent. Therefore, he offered him to know about cinema world through participation in short narrative documentary film "Al Kahira Monwara Beahliha" when an acting personality embodiment was entrusted to him, in addition to training on directing. He quickly discovered his being attracted to direction, so he joined Youssef Shahin scholars. In 1992, he became co-director to Youssef Shahin in "Al Muhajer" Film. He participated in writing the film's scenario and dialogue together with others. This is highly reflected in the next films, particularly when became the excusive director of "Al Maseer", "Al Akhar", and "Alexandria New York " that he assisted Youssef Shahin in writing the story, scenario and dialogue for these films. In 2000, he authored and directed his first film "Al Asifa", and he obtained the grand prize of International Arbitration Committee in Cairo International Cinema Festival (Silver Pyramid), and the reward of Best Arabic Film, in addition to the reward of best director (Top Work) in the National Festival of the Egyptian Cinema. He participated in many international festivals, such as San Francesco Festival in USA. In 2001, he directed his second Film "Gwaz Biqarar Gomhoury", and he obtained the reward of best director (Top Work) in the National Festival of the Egyptian Cinema. In 2004, he directed "Enta Omry" Film, and represented Egypt in Cairo International Cinema Festival. The film obtained the reward of the Best Actress. In 2005-2006, he presented "Weja" and "Khiana Mshroua" Movies that were authored and directed by him. Those two films reflected the extent audience response to his movies. In 2007, he participated Director Youssef Shahin in directing "Heya Fawda" Movie, which constituted a rare precedent in the history of the Egyptian cinema. This film represented Egypt in the official contest of Venice International Cinema Festival. In the same year (2007), he presented his Movie "Hena Mysara", which sparked controversy not only in Egypt, but also worldwide as it was widely successful at the both criticism and audience admiration levels. The movie gained the most prizes of National Festival of Egyptian Cinema, such as the Best Movie Prize, the Best Director, the Best decoration, and the Best Drama. In 2008, he presented "Al Rayis Omar Harb" Movie, and obtained the prize of the Best Director of the National Festival of Egyptian Cinema for the second year respectively. In 2009, he presented his ninth Movie "Dokan Shehata" after he became one of the most prominent directors of Arab Cinema, and the most famous one due to the issues tackled by such movies that deserve discussion through cinematic style distinguished by suspension, accompanied with dramatic storyline and excellence of outstanding style presented through visual narration. In 2010, he presented his tenth Movie "Kalemni Shokan", through which he presented his own vision regarding the effect of communication revolution on changing the values and traditions believes in Arab community. During the same year, he directed his eleventh Movie "Kaf El Qamar", but he was able to screen it only by the end of 2011 due to the circumstances of 25 January Revolution. "Heya Fawda" , "Hena Maysara" and "Dokan Shehata" trilogies are considered to be among the movies that contributed highly in disclosing the volume of deteriorating indeed the very bad facts, including of poverty, oppression and injustice witnessed by Egyptians the matter that rooted the spirit of rebellion of rebellion which led to 25 January Revolution. During the 30 June anti-government protests he was chosen by the Armed Forces to photograph these scene from military aircraft. He was the only cinema director who photographed these scene, and made this flight on the military aircraft photographing the most prominent places in Egypt occupied by largest number of demonstrators in the history. These graphic scenes have much effect in convincing the world that 30 June was a people's revolution and not a military coup as alleged by Muslim Brotherhood. According to Dubai International Film Festival 2013 two of Khaled Youssef's movies "Heya Fawda" and "Hena Mysara" were in the list of the "100 Best Arab Films of All Times"- Director
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Amr Salama has written and directed multiple award winning feature films.
On A Day Like Today (2008) Asmaa (2011) Excuse My French (2014) Made In Egypt (2014) Sheikh Jackson (2017)
Co-directed the documentary, Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad & The Politician, winner of the UNESCO award at the Venice Film Festival and numerous other international awards.
Directed and supervised the content of the first season of the Arabic version of the international TV show, Saturday Night Live.
Directed the hit Arabic Egyptian drama 'Tayea'.
Created, wrote, produced and directed the 1st Netflix original show in Egypt 'Paranormal' which was listed by Variety as one of the best international shows in 2020.
In 2021, co-wrote and directed the film Extracurricular and also co-produced and co-directed the show Bimbo for Shahid VIP.- Director
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Samir Seif was born on 23 October 1947 in Cairo, Egypt. He was a director and writer, known for Souq al mot aa (1999), The Fish's Tail (2003) and His Excellency the Minister (2002). He died on 9 December 2019 in Cairo, Egypt.- Director
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Egyptian film director, script writer and producer. He made many short films, documentaries before made his first feature length film (Basra). He promoted for independent cinema since his graduation from Cairo Film Institute in 1994, and has produced many of his short films independently. He has also co-authored a book about Arab Independent Cinema in 2002 and other book about documentary filmmaker Samir Ouf. He was the executive producer and director for many documentaries produced exclusively for Al-Jazeera Channel. He worked as executive producer solely on several productions for Arab and Foreigners production companies working in Egypt. He participated as a jury members in many short and documentary film festivals- Writer
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Ibrahim El-Batout, who was born on the 20th of September, 1963 in Portsaid, is a graduate of the American University in Cairo in 1985, majoring in Physics. El Batout's infatuation with the camera started in the Video Cairo Production House, an agency that provides facilities for foreign TV-stations. There, he worked as a sound engineer. Shortly after, El Batout began to experiment with filmmaking and learned about the skills required of cameramen, editors and directors. Later, he worked for a year at a British television station called TV-Am, located in Cyprus. Since then, he has worked as a director, producer and cameraman, capturing stories mainly about human loss, suffering, and displacement since 1987, and has also directed numerous documentaries for international TV channels, such as ZDF (Germany), TBS (Japan) and ARTE (France).
El Batout documentary work has received numerous international awards, such as : the Axel Springer Award in Germany (1994 and 2000) and the Direct Marketing Association's coveted ECHO award (1996).
Towards the beginning of 2004, El Batout stepped into the world of fiction to make the long feature film 'Ithaki' (2005). His second feature film 'Ein Shams' (Eye of the Sun) (2008) has won the Golden Bull, the top prize at the 54th Taormina Film Festival, 2008.
In 2010, El Batout's third feature film Hawi won the best Arab Film Award at the 2nd Doha Tribeca Film Festival, and will have its international premiere at the 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam January/February 2011.- Director
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Born in Cairo 19 December 1979, Graduated from the Faculty of Music Education, worked as a film editor from 2003 .living in Cairo - Egypt. Heliopolis was his first long feature film which was considered as one of the beginnings of the Egyptian independent cinema new wave. Still occasionally blogging and plays music.- Writer
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Mohamed Diab is an Egyptian filmmaker and the lead director on Marvel Studio's MOON KNIGHT starring Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy.
He began his career as a screenwriter, achieving commercial success in the Middle East. In 2010 he made his directorial debut CAIRO 678, about a trio of female vigilantes who fight sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo. Paulo Coehlo tweeted it "should be mandatory for all men to watch."
In 2016, he followed up with the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regarde opener CLASH (2016), an action packed political thriller shot entirely from within the confines of a police truck. Tom Hanks praised the film and urged people to see it, for "it will break your heart, but enlighten all."
His film AMIRA (2021) picked up three awards at the Venice Film Festival. The story centers around the phenomenon of Palestinian prisoners conceiving children through smuggled sperm.
Mohamed often collaborates with his writer-producer partner and wife, Sarah Goher.
In 2011, Diab received a Webby award for his role in the Egyptian revolution, which was chronicled in the bestselling book "Rising from Tahrir." Diab was also featured as a main character in "Tahrir," a video game about the Arab Spring.- Director
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Yousry Nasrallah was born on 26 July 1952 in Cairo, Egypt. He is a director and writer, known for El Medina (1999), Sarikat Sayfeya (1988) and Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story (2009).- Director
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The director Mohamed Khan was born on October 26th 1942. He completed his high school in Egypt, then traveled to England where he earned his diploma in 1962. He directed several movies in 8mm. He went back to Egypt in 1963 & worked as script writer in a Cairo production company. Worked in Lebanon for few years as an assistant director, then went to live in England from 1970 till 1978 & there wrote his book "Introduction to the Egyptian Cinema" in English. He lives in Egypt now & has one daughter (Nadin) & one son (Hassan). He's one of the best known directors in the Egyptian Cinema.- Director
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Enas El-Degheidy was born in 1953 in Cairo, Egypt. She is a director and assistant director, known for Mothakerat morahkah (2001), Al bahethat an al horeya (2004) and Dantilla (1998).- Director
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Salah Abouseif was born on 10 May 1915 in Cairo, Egypt. He was a director and writer, known for El Fetewa (1957), The Monster (1954) and Mughamarat Antar wa Abla (1948). He died on 23 June 1996 in Cairo, Egypt.- Director
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Daoud Abdel Sayed was born on 23 November 1946 in Egypt. He is a director and writer, known for Land of Fear (1999), Messages from the Sea (2010) and Mowaten we mokhber we haramy (2001).- Director
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Henry Barakat was born on 11 June 1914 in Cairo, Egypt. He was a director and writer, known for El bab el maftuh (1963), Hasan wa Naimah (1959) and Leilet al quabd al Fatma (1984). He died on 27 May 1997 in Cairo, Egypt.- Director
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Ali Badr Khan was born in 1946 in Cairo, Egypt. He is a director and writer, known for Shafika and Metwali (1981), Al-raii wa al nesaa (1991) and Al-gough (1986). He was previously married to Suad Husni.- Director
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He was born on June 30, 1947 in Tanta, Egypt when his mother was going to visit some relatives in this Delta town north of Cairo. He lived until he was five years old in the countryside as the eldest of four siblings. The family had to move to Cairo for school and He grew up in the popular neighbourhood of Shoubra.
He has been fascinated with cinema since an early age. He used to dig holes in the mud fence around our old countryside house to observe the daily activities of the peasants. He also grew up fascinated with his uncle, Kamel Youssef, his mother's brother. He was a tall handsome man that studied drama and literature in England and returned to Egypt to work in radio and theater. His books opened his eyes to a whole new universe.
He entered the Egyptian Higher Institute of Cinema and graduated in 1967. He worked as an assistant director on two features: Abbas Kamel's "I am the Doctor"; and Tewfik Saleh's "Diary of the Village Investigator". In 1968, he headed to Poland to study on a one year fellowship. There, he met his beloved wife Monika Kowalczyk and they got married in October 1969. When he returned to Egypt, he continued to work as assistant director in addition to some acting and writing/teaching. In 1972, he worked with the famous Polish movie "In Desert and in Wilderness" during the shooting in Egypt.
In the period from 1974-86, he made over a dozen of documentaries and short films on a variety of topics. His first feature was "Bloody Destinies" in co-production with Algeria. The movie was shot in 1976, finished in 1980 and released in 1982.
He directed 11 feature movies over the years ranging from social drama to soul searching as Egyptians are caught between mixed identities. The Filmography section of this website provides details on his work as well as the various awards and honours received nationally and internationally. More recently, he has been teaching at the High Film Institute and he enjoyed the fresh perspectives of his students. He is also on a steep learning curve to catch up with the digital revolution. His dream is to break free from the production monopoly in Egypt and make movies independently.
His family has been a great support and an honest critic. He and Monika have a daughter, Miranda who is married and currently resides in the USA and a son, Robert who is starting college this year. From 1996 to present he has been Adjunct Professor, Higher Institute of Cinema, Cairo, Egypt.- Director
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Hala Khalil obtained a degree in film directing in 1992 from the Cairo Film School and started her career by writing and directing short films and documentaries. Her short film The Kite (1997) traveled to many film festivals and won several awards and international acclaim. Khalil has written and directed two feature films Best of Times (2004) and Cut and Paste (2006), which have both been screened at various international film festivals and have won several awards and top honors at festivals in Egypt and overseas. Khalil's work is marked by satire and features women as central characters.- Director
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Hani Khalifa born originally in upper Egypt and started as an assistant director in movies such as "Joy Thief" and "Nut Shells". In 2003 he made his directorial directorial debut"Sahar Al Layali" or "Sleepless Nights", the movie had a critical acclaim in Festivals like Cairo International festival and other national and international ones. He stopped directing for 8 years, and then he was offered to direct the movie "Awqat faragh "or "Free Time" which he declined due to his disagreement with the producer Hussein Kalla.Then in 2011 when he cam back directing a TV series "The University".