Life Style: Cannes festival picks Egyptian director Ahmed Shawky to head Fipresci jury

DUBAI: The International Federation of Critics has selected veteran Egyptian director Ahmed Shawky to chair the critic’s jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 17 to 28, making him the first person from the North African country to do so.

The committee that Shawky will chair dates back to 1925, making it the oldest and largest to ever be organized by Fipresci.

It will consist of nine critics from around the world.

They are Mariola Wiktor from Poland, Emmanuel Levy from the US, Simone Sorana from Italy, Jihan Bougrain from Morocco, Bidan Ribeiro from Bangladesh, Yusova Halidou Haruna from Niger, as well as the two French critics Nathalie Chevlet and Magali van Reith.

The nine jury members will be separated into three sub-committees, each responsible for awarding a prize.

Shawky will be overseeing all three sub-committees as well as participating in the selection of the winning entry in the international film competition.

While Shawky is the first Egyptian to be appointed as chair, many of his fellow citizens have served as part of the jury in the past, including critics Samir Farid, Youssef Sharif Rizkallah, Fawzi Suleiman, Amir Al-Omari, Ahmed Atef, Safaa El-Leithi and Ramy Abdel Razek.