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Exclusive: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry, star of Oscar-nominated hybrid doc Four Daughters and Netflix hit show Finding Ola, has signed with Cairo-based talent management and promotional agency Mad Celebrity.

The company will manage and promote the star across the Middle East and North Africa, while CAA, which signed Sabry in 2023, continues to represent her internationally as her talent agent.

Sabry first became a household name across the Arab world with the 2010 Egyptian TV classic Ayza Atgawez, in the role of a young pharmacist desperate to get married before she turns 30. She has since rebooted the character for Netflix in the hit show Finding Ola.

The star joins a growing list of internationally recognized talents from the Arab world on the Mad Celebrity books, including megastar Yousra, the Emmy-nominated Menna Shalaby (Nawara), British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal (The Sandman) and the trail-blazing Saudi artist Fatima Al Banawi (Basma).

Sabry, who has...

Two powerful figures in the Arab world, Egyptian screenwriter and producer Mohamed Hefzy and Tunisian-born actor and model Hend Sabri, have been named Chevalier and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, France’s highest honors, respectively.

The ceremony took place in Cairo on Wednesday, and the honor was given by Stéphane Romatet, the ambassador of France in Egypt. The Order of Arts and Letters recognizes “eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.”

Hefzy, who is known for being charismatic and forward-thinking, has presided over the Cairo Film Festival since 2018 and has succeeded in raising its international profile significantly.

Hefzy’s award-winning credits span more than 30 feature films in Egypt, the U.S., U.K. and the Arab ‎world. His banner Film Clinic, which was founded in 2006 and now ranks as a ‎leading production...

Une histoire d’amour et de désir

It’s now been six years since French-Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid (daughter of director Nouri Bouzid) premiered her 2015 debut As I Open My Eyes. She should be all set with sophomore title Une histoire d’amour et de désir (A Story of Love and Desire) in 2021, produced by Sandra da Fonseca. Sami Outalbali and Zbeida Belhajamor topline this bill. As I Open My Eyes premiered in Venice Days at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, winning the audience award and Label Europa Cinemas award. Cnc backed the project.…...

Une histoire d’amour et de désir

It’s been five years since French-Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid (daughter of director Nouri Bouzid) premiered her 2015 debut As I Open My Eyes. She should be all set with sophomore title Une histoire d’amour et de désir (A Story of Love and Desire) in 2020, produced by Sandra da Fonseca. Sami Outalbali and Zbeida Belhajamor will star. As I Open My Eyes premiered in Venice Days at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, winning the audience award and Label Europa Cinemas award. Cnc backed the project.

Gist: Bouzid’s sophomore film details the sexual awakening of Ahmed, a young French man of Algerian origins.…...

It begins in a prison cell with a despondent Djo (Joumene Limam) scribbling words on paper as Zina (Nour Hajri) implores her to stand so they may leave. Salvation comes in the form of a lawyer (Afef Ben Mahmoud’s Nadia) and doctor (Fatma Ben Saïdane’s Dora) desperate to figure out what has happened and how they were able to return to Tunisia. Details about this question only start to come into focus as Nouri Bouzid’s The Scarecrows progresses with the explanation that the two women were held captive in Syria by Islamist extremists—sex slaves for the soldiers who raped and impregnated them before removing their children. From one prison to another, their homecoming is met by civil animosity declaring them “damaged goods” and terrorists themselves.

Bouzid says that making this film was his opportunity to shed light upon those victims who’ve been walled off and erased from telling their stories.

The Criminal Man Photo: Courtesy of Venice Film Festival Six features from Venice Film Festival are available to watch online from today.

The selection from the Out of Competition, Orizzonti and Sconfini sections marks the eighth year of the online Web Theatre - which offers a maximum of 1000 tickets for each screening, with each version featuring subtitles in Italian and English. The films will stream from 9pm Italian time on the day they are presented on the Lido an will be available until September 19.

This year's line-up includes Colectiv (Collective), by German-Romanian documentarian Alexander Nanau (The Prince Of Nothingwood), plus the second feature by Théo Court, White On White, about a wedding photographer who becomes obsessed with the bride to be, starring Alfredo Castro. Also included is The Criminal Man by Dmitry Mamuliya, which sees an engineer's life turned upside down after he witnesses a murder and Nouri Bouzid's The Scarecrows,...

The distressing story of women who have followed their menfolk to war and ended up as the sexual pawns of Isis and Al-Qaeda has been told mainly by journalists and barely broached on film. Now Nouri Bouzid, the Tunisian pathfinder whose 1986 film Man of Ashes broke the taboo around homosexuality, boldly affronts the trauma of two young women who have escaped from their captors only to find themselves unable to return to a hostile, leering society.

Gripping if sometimes confusing, The Scarecrows (Les Epouvantails) is set in Tunis in 2013. Despite some political references that will fly over the audience’...

The distressing story of women who have followed their menfolk to war and ended up as the sexual pawns of Isis and Al-Qaeda has been told mainly by journalists and barely broached on film. Now Nouri Bouzid, the Tunisian pathfinder whose 1986 film Man of Ashes broke the taboo around homosexuality, boldly affronts the trauma of two young women who have escaped from their captors only to find themselves unable to return to a hostile, leering society.

Gripping if sometimes confusing, The Scarecrows (Les Epouvantails) is set in Tunis in 2013. Despite some political references that will fly over the audience’...

The Dubai International Film Festival (Diff, December 6-14), which celebrates its tenth edition this year, will pay tribute to Arab cinema by opening with Hany Abu Assad’s Omar.

The acclaimed feature, starring Adam Bakri, Samer Bisharat, Eyad Hourani and Waleed Zuaiter, was supported by Diff’s post-production and production funding support programme Enjaaz. Assad’s Paradise Now opened the second edition of Diff.

As previously announced, David O Russell’s American Hustle will close the festival, which will screen a total of 174 features, shorts and documentaries, including 70 world premieres and 11 international premieres from 57 countries. The line-up includes more than 100 films from the Arab world, highlighting the growing film culture in the region,

Two red carpet galas will be held each day to celebrate the tenth edition – including Frozen, August: Osage County, Labor Day, Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl, 12 Years A Slave, Fruitvale Station, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, [link...

Fifty years of movie magic, from Tunisia to Iraq, as chosen by Omar al-Qattan, film-maker and chair of Shubbak – A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture

The Night (Al-Lail)

Mohammad Malas, 1993

A great Syrian film. It is about the director's home town of Quneitra, on the borders of the Golan Heights, which was almost completely destroyed by the Israelis after the 1967 war and remains in ruins. The film is a historical-autobiographical epic of three generations, taking you from the Syrian fight for independence against the French in the 1930s, through the 1948 war with Israel, and into recent times. Malas is probably the most highly regarded living Syrian director – he is still based in Damascus as far as I know – and this film is heavily influenced by Tarkovsky in the use of long, contemplative dream and memory sequences where time is as important an expressive element as space, dialogue or movement.

The...

Col*Coa is winding down, but you can still catch a few stellar films and see the award winners for free Monday, April 22, 2013.

Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.

You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.

Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)

Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.

At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.

Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."

Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.

Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.

Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.

Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.

Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.

11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)

Directed by: Philippe Godeau

Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy

A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)

Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀

Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon

Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier

Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement

Directed by: Élie Wajeman

Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé

Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)

Directed by: Pierre Jolivet

Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël

Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)

Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀

Written by: Alice Winocour

Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)

Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀

Written by: Marguerite Abouet

Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)

Directed by: Jacques Demy

Written by: Jacques Demy

Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)

Directed by: Philippe Béziat

Written by: Philippe Béziat

Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Philippe Le Guay

Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay

Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)

Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil

Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen

Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)

Directed by: Christian Vincent

Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch

Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)

Directed by: Nouri Bouzid

Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam

Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani

Written by: Rachid Djaïdani

In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

Directed by: François Ozon

Written by: François Ozon

It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀

Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson

Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Christian Duguay

Written by: Guillaume Canet

Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)

Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern

Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern

Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)

Directed by: Samuel Collardey

Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey

Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)

Directed By: Stephan Schesch

Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer

Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)

Directed By: Régis Roinsard

Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt

Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)

Directed by: Anne Novion ♀

Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion

Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)

Directed by: Bruno Le Jean

Written by: Bruno Le Jean

Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)

Directed by: Alain Resnais

Written by: Jorge Semprún

The Attack / L’Attentat

France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013

Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

Directed by: André Téchiné

Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer

The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡

Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀

Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer

The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)

Directed by: Louis Malle

Written by: Louis Malle

The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))

Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz

The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris

Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant

THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)

Directed by: Claude Miller

Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter

Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)

Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀

Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin

To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)

Directed By: Maurice Pialat

Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat

True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)

Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie

Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster

Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)

Directed By: Édouard Deluc

Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot

What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)

Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte

Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte

You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)

Directed By: Alain Resnais

Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...

To celebrate Africa Express rolling out across the UK, here's a guide to 10 classic films to have come from the continent

Africa played no part in the invention of cinema. For decades, in Tarzan movies, it was the subject of fake Hollywood fantasies. And yet, when Africans made films about themselves, the results were astonishing. There are scores of great African movies. Here are 10 of the best:

Cairo Station (Egypt, 1958)

If Alfred Hitchcock had been Egyptian and bisexual, and had himself played Norman Bates, Psycho might have been something like this. Sweaty, musical, melodramatic and political, Cairo Station stars ballsy writer-director Youssef Chahine as a homicidal newspaper seller in Cairo's vast railway station. In the 1950s, movies such as Rebel without a Cause and All That Heaven Allows were about repression as a ticking time bomb, but Chahine's film about sexual desire with no outlet was one of the biggest cinematic bombs of the decade.

NEW DELHI -- Honoring the best of Asian and Arab cinema, the ninth annual Osian's Cinefan festival concluded Sunday with an awards ceremony that saw a best film nod for Korean director Zhang Lu's "Hyazgar" (Desert Dream).

Centering on the plight of North Korean refugees in Mongolia, the jury's citation heralded the film "for the conviction with which Zhang Lu depicts the contemporary crisis of our time."

Best actress went to Filipino veteran Cherry Pie Picache for her role as a mother who prepares her child for adoption by an American family in Brillante Mendoza's "Foster Child".

Lofto Abdelli picked up best actor for Nouri Bouzid's Tunisian film "Making Of" (Akher), which also shared a special jury award in the Asian & Arab competition section with Iranian film "Lonesome Trees" by Saeed Ebrahamifar.

The Indian competition section saw "Paruthiveeran" by Ameer Sultan pick up best film, while its leading lady, Priyamani, won best actress in the same section. Filmed in the South Indian Tamil language, "Paruthiveeran" explores the relationship between a small-time criminal and a girl from a respectable background.

NEW DELHI -- Honoring the best of Asian and Arab cinema, the 9th Osian's Cinefan festival concluded Sunday here with an awards ceremony that saw a best film nod for Korean director Zhang Lu's "Hyazgar" ("Desert Dream").

Revolving around the plight of North Korean refugees in Mongolia, the jury's citation heralded the film "for the conviction with which Zhang Lu depicts the contemporary crisis of our time."

Best actress went to Filipino veteran Cherry Pie Picache for her role as a mother who prepares her child for adoption by an American family in Brillante Mendoza's "Foster Child".

Lofto Abdelli picked best actor for Nouri Bouzid's Tunisian film "Making Of" ("Akher") which also shared a special jury award in the Asian & Arab competition section with Iranian film "Lonesome Trees" by Saeed Ebrahamifar.

The Indian competition section saw "Paruthiveeran" by Ameer Sultan picking up best film while its leading lady Priyamani won best actress in the same section. The film - in the South Indian Tamil language - explores the relationship between a small-time criminal and a girl from a respectable background.

ROME -- "Making Off, le Dernier Film" (Making Of), which won two prizes at the Tribeca Film Festival, took home two more major awards Friday when it won the Golden Bull for best film and the top performance prize at the 53rd Taormina FilmFest.

The film, from Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid, tells the story of a group of Muslim fundamentalists who try to turn a young banker, played by best perfomance winner Lotfi Abdelli, into a suicide bomber. The Taormina best film prize is the biggest honor yet for the highly regarded film, which took home a special mention for its screenplay and a best actor nod for Abdelli at Tribeca, which concluded last month.

Among other prize winners at Taormina were Italian Mafia informer drama "L'Uomo di Vetro" (Man of Glass), from Stefano Incerti, which won a jury prize for best script. A separate jury prize was given to Israeli David Volach's "Hofshat Kaits" (My Father, My Lord) -- another Tribeca honoree, for best narrative feature -- which recounts the story of a rabbi forced to choose between his faith and his family.

TAORMINA, Sicily -- Egypt was in the spotlight Wednesday at the Taormina Film Festival as a gala celebrating the nation's 100th year of filmmaking provided the day's main event.

Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf Rashed was on hand at the majestic Greek Theatre to receive the first AC Nielsen Award for Dialogue Between Cultures. And three Egyptian films screened, including Osama Fawzi's 1960s-set drama "Baheb el Cima" (I Love Cinema), which unspooled at the 2,300-year-old cliffside venue at the conclusion of the gala.

Also screening from Egypt were "Ahla El-Awkat" (The Best of Times), director Hala Khalel's 2004 drama about a family tragedy, and Sherif El-Bendary's short film "Rise and Shine", which played in the Greek Theatre before the gala.

The day's non-Egyptian fare included screenings of Tribeca Film Festival favorite "Making Off, le Dernier Film" (Making Of) from Tunisia's Nouri Bouzid, which unspooled in Taormina's Mediterranean competition, and "XXY", the story of a teenage hermaphrodite from Argentinean director Lucia Puenzo, which screened in the non-Mediterranean foreign film competition.

ROME -- A quartet of world premieres will join the international launch of Michael Bay's big-budget summer film "Transformers" as highlights of the 53rd annual Taormina Film Festival, organizers said Thursday.

While Paramount/DreamWorks' "Transformers" is hitting screens in South Korea and Australia a few days earlier, the Taormina event will serve as the film's official launch, with Bay and star Shia LaBeouf expected to be on hand for the June 21 screening.

The festival will include four true world premieres: Stefano Incerti's anti-Mafia film "L'Uomo di Vetro" (The Glass Man), Moroccan travel film "Two Women on the Road" from Farida Bourquia, the drama "Fuerte Apache" from Spain's Jaime Matteo Adrover and French crime picture "13 M2" from Barthelemy Grossman.

The Mediterranean competition will include Incerti's "L'Uomo di Vetro", "Adem in Trenleri" (Adam and the Devil) from Turkey's Baris Pirhasan, Adrover's "Fuerte Apache", "Akher Film" (Making Of) from Tunisia's Nouri Bouzid, Grossmann's "13 M2" and "Hofshtkaits" (My Father My Lord) from Israeli director David Volach.

Other significant screenings include "Good Time Max" from actor-director James Franco, "Kings" from Tom Collins, Russia's "Kremen" (Flint) from Aleksei Mizgiryov, Japanese director Masaki Hamamoto's "Akanezora" (Beyond the Crimson Sky), "XXY" from Argentina's Lucia Puenzo and "Pazachut na Murtvite" (Warden of the Dead) from Ilian Simeonov of Bulgaria.