Rania Rafei & Mohanad Yaqubi Projects Among Cairo Film Connection Line-Up

Cairo International Film Festival has chosen 17 projects for the 12th edition of its co-production and development platform, Cairo Film Connection (CFC), which is taking place November 14-19 during the festival.

The final line-up was selected from 193 submissions across 15 Arab countries and tilts toward fiction at the early stage. Nine of the projects are fiction features in development, four are non-fiction projects in development, and the three post-production projects are all documentaries. The festival’s submission figures show seven fiction projects applied in post-production, and none was selected.

Some directors are repeat participants. Mohamed Siam, who is selected this year with The Schoolyard, previously had My Father’s Scent in the post-production strand in 2024. Naji Ismail, who has The Man Who Is Gone in this year’s line-up, had A House For Expats in the 2019 fiction development list. Khaled Al Swidan's documentary Amal, selected for this year's post-production strand, was also selected for the 2024 development line-up.

Across its first 11 editions, CFC selected 169 projects from 15 Arab countries. The festival says 88 of them, or 52%, received awards or support, and 60 went on to launch at major international festivals.

These include two documentaries from the 2025 line-up: Rania Rafei’s The Day Of Wrath: Tales From Tripoli, which premiered in this year’s Berlinale Forum, and Mohanad Yaqubi’s Revolutionaries Never Die, which was selected for Locarno's Filmmakers of the Present competition.

For the first time, CFC has paired its selected filmmakers with mentors in a special programme, with this year's mentors including Jihan El-Tahri, Khaled Alarabi, Khalid Shamis, Mohammed Hammad and Margje de Koning.

The sessions focus on preparing projects for the market, from building a budget and a financing plan to deciding where a finished film should premiere, with pitch coaching and specific support for documentary projects. Teams will then present their projects during Cairo Industry Days (November 14-19).

Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, about the making of 1976 Hollywood classic Rocky, is the opening film of this year’s Cairo International Film Festival, which kicks off today (November 11) and runs until November 20. A total of 12 films have been selected for the International Competition, including Heysel 85, from Romania’s Teodora Ana Milai, and Moroccan filmmaker Leila Marrakchi’s Strawberries.

Cairo International Film Festival is headed by president Hussein Fahmy and artistic director Mohammed Tarek, while Cairo Industry Days and Cairo Film Connection are headed by Mohamed Sayed Abdel Rahim.

CAIRO FILM CONNECTION 2026: FULL LINE-UP

CFC 2026 IN DEVELOPMENT FICTION:

Dear Tarkovsky, by Firas Khoury (Sweden, Jordan, France)

In The Land Of Lavender, by Ali Saeed (Saudi Arabia)

Madness And Honey Days, by Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji (Iraq, Canada, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Norway)

The Man Who Is Gone, by Naji Ismail (Egypt)

Naydalaan, by Mariam AlDhubhani (Yemen, Jordan)

Reda, by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh (Egypt)

The Schoolyard, by Mohamed Siam (Egypt, Belgium)

A Special Night, by Zhino Hadi Hassan (Iraq, Norway)

Unclear Number, by Yahya Alabdallah (Jordan, Iraq, Luxembourg, Egypt, Sweden)

CFC 2026 IN DEVELOPMENT NON-FICTION:

Come Out, Ateyyat, by Manal Khaled (Egypt)

Dwellers Of The Cabins, by Hend Bakr (Egypt)

The Story Of The Mountain, by Shayma’ Awawdeh (Palestine, France)

Terminus, by Oumaima Trabelsi (Tunisia)

Twelve Fig Leaves, by Jöelle Abou Chabké (Lebanon)

CFC 2026 POST-PRODUCTION:

A Butterfly Hug, by Sally Abobasha (Egypt)

Amal, by Khaled Alswidan (Syria, Jordan)

Disappeared, by Anas Zwahri (Syria, France, Lebanon, Qatar)