10 Oct Alumni World Premiere to be Screened at the Cairo International Film Festival
IEFTA is proud to announce that one of our Alumni, Egyptian director Aya Yusuf, will have the world premiere of her film Samar: Before The Final Picture in the Documentary Competition of the Cairo International Film Festival. The film is set between Cairo and Dubai, where Samar tries to rebuild her life after being assaulted by her former partner.
Aya Yusuf (Egypt)
DIRECTOR | PRODUCER | EDITOR
Aya Yusuf is an Egyptian Producer, Director and Editor. She co-founded Shoghl Cairo Pictures as an independent film production company in 2020.
Aya graduated with a degree in Mass Communications from Cairo University and began working as an editor and producer for television and online content. Her experiences working in various media organizations sparked her passion for documentary film and the impact it can have on raising awareness for human rights and social injustice issues. Aya joined See Media Production (2013 – 2021). She began working on more in-depth, creative, feature length documentaries. Aya has edited 11 short and 5 feature length documentaries such as “My Mohamed is Different” in 2020 – Premiered at Hot Docs 2021 & screened at Carthage Film festival.
Her latest project as Editor was “From Cairo” which won the Best Non-Fiction In Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition in Cairo International Film Festival 2021 & Sherine Abu Aqleh Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival for the best non fiction film.Now the film is screened on Netflix.
Aya is participating in Beirut DC’s Impact Fellowship program 2022 in order to be an impact producer and learn how to build Impact Campaigns around Arab films that address the most important social, Political and environmental issues facing the Arab region.
Aya Yusuf was selected for IEFTA Mentorship at Cairo International Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection 2020.
This is Aya's first feature documentary and it will have its world premiere at the Cairo International Film Festival 2023. It is supported by Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund, Afacc, IEFTA, Film Independent, Prince Clause, New Black and Sum of All Music.