Venue
El Gouna, Red Sea Governorate, Egypt
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El Gouna Film Festival guide
Red-carpet premieres and Arab film deals.
In short
The ninth El Gouna Film Festival ran from 15 to 23 October 2026 at the Red Sea resort, pairing premieres fresh from Cannes and Berlin with competitions and the CineGouna industry programme. It usually takes a week in October; watch the official site from late summer for 2027 dates. It suits cinephiles and industry visitors alike.
Every autumn the purpose-built Red Sea resort of El Gouna becomes the busiest meeting point in Arab cinema. Its film festival pairs red-carpet premieres of titles fresh from Cannes and Berlin with competitions for new narrative features, documentaries and shorts, and it backs all that glamour with a working industry programme.
That programme, CineGouna, is what gives the festival its weight. Money from its funding platform goes into Arab films that are still being written or edited, and its forum and market are where those filmmakers sit down with producers and buyers from abroad.
The star power helps too. In under a decade the guest list has taken in Patrick Dempsey, Sylvester Stallone and Owen Wilson.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Ends: Friday, 29 October 2027
Where: Hurghada, Egypt
Venue: El Gouna Conference and Culture Center
Held: Every year
Type of event: Cultural Events, Film Festivals
Currency: Egyptian pound (EGP, E£)
Time zone: Eastern European Time, UTC+2 (UTC+3 in summer)
Language: Arabic
Map
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Clothing for hot days and formal evenings
Plan for two wardrobes. Days in October are properly hot, so bring light, breathable clothes, a hat, sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen, and refill a water bottle whenever you pass a café. Walking between venues at midday is tiring; save it for the morning or late afternoon.
Evenings are different. Galas, premieres and the ceremonies draw a dressed-up crowd, and a smart outfit is expected if you hold a ticket for one of them. A light jacket or wrap also earns its place in the bag for air-conditioned halls.
Accreditation, tickets and the schedule
- Film professionals, press and students need accreditation. For 2026 it opened in late August, and filmmakers who applied before 6 September paid a lower rate.
- Members of the public buy screening tickets through the festival's own ticketing page. Check that page.
- The complete screening grid tends to appear only a few days before opening night. Recheck it once you arrive, as times and halls can shift.
Setting aside a day for diving or snorkelling
Block out one full day with no films at all and spend it diving or snorkelling. Treat that day as fixed when you plan, because the industry sessions and the evening premieres will otherwise swallow every hour of the week.
Between the beach and the cinema, a little modesty goes a long way. Keep swimwear for the sand and the pools, and put on a shirt and something over the knees before heading into town or into a festival venue, where the crowd includes Egyptian families as well as international guests.
What happens on the day
- Daytime
The industry
In 2026 the CineGouna Forum held working sessions through the week, and the Emerge strand ran Meet the Experts talks and workshops.
- Midday
Swim, not walk
Noon is hot for walking between venues and ideal for a swim.
- Evening
Premieres and the red carpet
At the Festival Plaza of the El Gouna Conference and Culture Center.
- First and last nights
Ceremonies
Opening and closing ceremonies bracket the run.
Where to stay in El Gouna during the festival
Lock in the hotel first and the films second. Guests and press take over El Gouna's hotels for the week, and the resort is small enough that a late booking can leave you sleeping in Hurghada and driving up every evening. The town's own hotel listings split most properties into three areas. Downtown, around Tamr Henna Square, has the Sultan Bey and The Chedi. Abu Tig Marina has smaller waterside places such as Captain's Inn and Turtle's Inn. New Marina has the Fanadir and the Mosaique.
Pick by the shape of your days. Anyone holding an industry badge spends long hours at the Festival Plaza, where CineGouna runs its forum and market, so a Downtown room keeps the walks short. Visitors mixing films with the sea often prefer the marina, with its restaurants and dive boats. Either way, the trip falls naturally into two halves: mornings on a beach such as Zeytuna, which has an island of its own, and evenings in a cinema seat. Our Egypt travel guide is the place to start if you want to add another region before or after.
The festival's founding in 2017 and its awards
The first edition opened on 22 September 2017, set up by Naguib Sawiris with a handful of partners, his brother Samih among them. That family link explains a great deal. Samih's company, Orascom Development, began building El Gouna in 1990, with architects Michael Graves and Alfredo Freda borrowing the look of rural Egyptian villages. The resort needed a cultural calendar and the festival gave it one. Even the Sea Cinema was built for that first year and now shows films all year round.
The prize money is serious for a festival this young. In the narrative competition the Gold Star carries 50,000 US dollars, the Silver 25,000 and the Bronze 15,000, with another 20,000 dollars set aside for the best Arab narrative feature. Documentaries climb a parallel ladder of Stars.
For the region's filmmakers the bigger draw is CineGouna. Its funding platform backs Arab projects still in development or post-production, and its forum and market put those teams in front of producers and buyers. The festival's reach also runs back to the capital: it has partnered with Zawya, the Cairo arthouse cinema, four years in a row.
Getting there
Flying in
Hurghada International Airport, about 25 km from El Gouna, is well served from Europe in October by easyJet, TUI, Condor and Wizz Air; Egyptair links it with Cairo in about an hour.
From Cairo by road
455 km on the highway via Ain Sokhna. Coaches such as Go Bus run to Dahar in Hurghada, then take a taxi.
In El Gouna
Venues sit close together across the lagoons and islands. The Sea Cinema adds three screens to the Festival Plaza, and shuttles and tuk-tuks cover the short hops.
Where to stay during the festival
The next edition runs from 21 October to 29 October 2027. Book your room as soon as your dates are fixed, since rooms close to the festival are the first to go.
Weather and what to pack
October on the Red Sea coast is hot and almost rainless. Normals for this coast are a high of about 32°C and a low of about 22°C (1991-2020).
Worth packing
- Smart evening wear for premieres
- Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses
- Swimwear
- A light layer for air-conditioned screens
Car hire in Hurghada
Airport transfer to El Gouna Film Festival
Met at arrivals at Sharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH) and driven door to door to El Gouna Conference and Culture Center.
- Sharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH) → El Gouna Conference and Culture Center
Restaurants and food in Egypt
Places to eat in Egypt before or after the celebrations.
Mohamed Ahmed
17 Shakour Street, Raml Station, Alexandria, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianFul
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Sofra Restaurant & Café
90 Mohamed Farid Street, Al Manshiya, Luxor, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianMiddle Eastern
- Dine-in
- Outdoor seating
Koshary Abou Tarek
Champollion Street, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt
Cuisine:EgyptianKoshary
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
The festival is an October event, and the 2027 edition is expected in that month. Exact dates had not been announced at the time of writing, so check the official website from late summer.
Anyone can buy tickets for public screenings through the festival's ticketing page. Accreditation is only needed for professionals, press and students who want access to the industry side.
The documentary competition has its own Gold Star, worth 30,000 US dollars, plus a Silver Star of 15,000 and a Bronze of 7,500. A separate 10,000-dollar prize goes to the best Arab documentary.
Ana Urushadze's Scary Mother took the top narrative prize at the inaugural 2017 edition, when the festival opened in late September, earlier than its later October slot.
Yes. The 2022 edition, planned for mid-October, did not go ahead, and the 2023 festival was held in December, outside its usual autumn slot.
It is one of the industry strands. In 2026 its fourth edition offered Meet the Experts sessions and hands-on workshops alongside the main festival.
Shorts have their own competition, and the festival also runs the Eish Short Film Competition. Its third edition was won by Fares El Tabey for Between Two Shores.
For 2026 Amr Mansi, one of the original co-founders, is executive director. Andrew Mohsen is artistic director and shapes the film selection.
Yes. The narrative competition includes awards for best actor and best actress, presented as a trophy and certificate.
Yes. In October the Red Sea off this coast averages about 26 °C, which makes a morning swim easy to fit in before the afternoon programme.
Booking
It varies by year. In 2024 there were 15 films in the narrative competition and 12 in the documentary competition, alongside a separate short film section.