The 2025 edition of the Cairo International Film Festival opens this November, with 13 AFAC-supported films featuring in various sections. Some of these films record times that are changing or standing still, while others range from the supernatural to the very real. Through these works, the filmmakers bend genres and rethink histories to bring forth a human-centric approach to cinema from the Arab region.

Premiering under the “International Competition Feature Films” section is Souraya, Mon Amour by Lebanese filmmaker Nicolas Khoury. The film traces dancer and actress Souraya Baghdadi as she reflects on her life with her late husband, Lebanese director Maroun Baghdadi. Another film, Exile by Tunisian director Mehdi Hmili, competing in the same section, follows four workers in Tunisia’s largest steel factory, haunted by the loss of their colleague. In an atmosphere of social and political tension, their struggles help them overcome their pain.

Another Tunisian film, Looking for Ayda by Sarra Abidi, will premiere in the “Horizons of Arab Cinema” section. Ayda leads a lonely and empty life as an operator in a call center. The seemingly inconsequential events, and fortuitous encounters she makes along the way, push her to reconsider her life in all its vacuity. From Iraq, Zahraa Ghandour’s Flana examines the disappearances of Iraqi women, through the filmmaker’s personal quest to find her childhood friend Nour. The documentary film is also featured in CIFF’s “Horizons of Arab Cinema” section.

Egyptian film The Last Miracle by Abdelwahab Shawky will premiere in the “Short Film Competition” section. The film follows Yehia, a journalist who receives a mysterious phone call from a dead person which transports him onto a spiritual journey that ends with an unexpected fate. Taking part in the same section is Tunisian filmmaker Mariam Alferjani’s First the Blush then the Habit. This short drama tells a tale of blood and transgression featuring Layla and Ettore, whose meeting reveals similar memories, fears, tenderness, and a desire to eternalize the youth that was stolen from them.

Two AFAC-supported films will participate in the “International Critics’ Week” section. Both dig into the past, signaling changing times. Habibi Hussein by Alex Bakri (Palestine) tells the story of Hussein, the last projectionist of an old cinema in Jenin. His knowledge and passion for cinema might not be enough for him to reclaim his job back, as times have changed. Do You Love Me by Lana Daher (Lebanon) is a personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the film reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory.

Set to feature in the “Special Screenings” section is Egyptian documentary film Life After Siham by Namir Abdel Messeeh, where Namir himself - a filmmaker suffering from creative block - decides to revive his mother Siham’s memory through the medium of film.

Additionally, four films in the making will take part in the “Cairo Film Connection” for projects in progress: The Side Effects of Trusting Life by Ahmed Ghossein (Lebanon); All that the Wind Can Carry by Maged Nader (Egypt); The Color of Our Time by Haydar Helo (Iraq); and The Day of Wrath by Rania Rafei (Lebanon).

For the full program and screening schedule, visit the CIFF website.