Written by Laila Hussein

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced that the eminent Faten Hamama Award for Excellence will be granted to Egyptian actor Karim Abdel Aziz. The CIFF 43rd edition (26 November-5 December) will see Abdel Aziz be honoured for his outstanding career through the award.

Festival President. Mohamed Hefzy stated that “the festival is always keen to honour the figures who combine talent, popularity, devotion to cinema, and this applies to the star Karim Abdel Aziz, who will be awarded the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence.”

Hefzy added that “I respected Karim Abdel Aziz throughout 20 years of success in a career in which he played roles in comedies, action, thrillers, horror and romance. He managed to succeed and sometimes surprise us with his bold choices. It is not by coincidence that he is among the highest-earning movie stars in the history of Egyptian cinema without having to follow the guaranteed pattern of the film market.”

As for Abdel Aziz, he expressed her contentment by sharing how honoured he is to receive this award from the prestigious Cairo International Film Festival that bears the name of the legendary artist Faten Hamama. He described this honouring as a milestone in his film career, which kicked of with Edhak Al-Soura Tetlaa Hilwa (Laugh, the Photo May Look Nicer, 1998), until it reached a peak with the hit action series Al-Iktyiar 2 (The Choice 2, 2021), which was screed last Ramadan. He is also working on the highly-anticipated ‘Kira and El Gin’, which is currently being filmed.

Abdel Aziz added that the award reminded him of the very beginnings of his career, when he hoped to be among the invited artists to attend CIFF, one of the oldest film festivals and even the most important one in the Middle East, but come next November he will attend as an honoree.