A number of sponsors of the El Gouna Film Festival withdrew due to its support for Gaza
The El Gouna Film Festival will kick off its sixth session, which organizers described as “exceptional,” on Thursday, in light of the boycott of some sponsors and major partners of the Egyptian festival, due to its stance in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Sources from within the festival’s administration told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that some of the major international companies that sponsored previous editions clearly threatened to terminate their sponsorship contracts if the events adopted any position supportive of the Palestinian people.
The sources, who preferred not to publish their names because they were not authorized to make a statement, confirmed that Orange, Pepsi, Tresemme, Nestle, Infiniti, and Mega canceled sponsorship contracts with the Al-Houna Festival due to these companies’ bias toward the occupation. Israeli, while the festival’s orientation tends to support Gaza.
The sources pointed out that TRESemme, which specializes in beauty, hair and skin care products, clearly threatened that if the festival took any position in support of Gaza, they would withdraw, which is what actually happened.
A few days after the start of the war on Gaza, on October 7, the administration of the El Gouna Film Festival announced the postponement of the start of its sixth session until the end of October, before it postponed it again.
At a time when many film festivals in Egypt were postponed and cancelled, the administration of the El Gouna Festival announced a new date starting Thursday, pointing out that it had created a program that celebrates Palestinian cinema, and includes showing a group of films about Palestine, while canceling all festive appearances.
The events are scheduled to open on Thursday with the screening of the short film “Sixty Pounds” by Egyptian director Amr Salama, and will continue until December 21.
