Aswan International Women Film Festival

Workshops Closure Ceremony

7 March 2023

Closing remarks by

Ambassador Christian Berger, Head of the EU Delegation to Egypt

It is my great pleasure to be present with you today, with such a wonderful group of young women and men.

This is the fourth year in which the European Union is partner to the Aswan International Women Film Festival. Along these years, we have been keen to maintain our support to an important activity of the festival: Training of youth in all cinematic fields.

Since 2020, more than 250 young women and men participated in workshops on direction, filmmaking, script writing, and the majority of which have been women.

The European Union attaches a great importance to youth and women empowerment. This is a strong commitment reflected in many projects that we support in many fields, including education, technical education and vocational training, entrepreneurship, as well as support to cultural activities.

In Egypt, support to women and youth participation is significant, where women represent almost half of the population and where youth represent more than 60% of the society. Youth and women empowerment are not only essential to the overall development of any country.

Cinema has been Egypt’s soft power since the beginning of the 20th century. It has had great contributions to raising awareness about many issues including women’s rights.

With continued efforts to support young women and men like you, I hope that more and more positive impacts are realised.

Our thanks go to the organisers, trainers, the other donors and supporters but foremost to the participants on the workshops. 

I would like to congratulate each one of you, for taking the time and effort to learn more about cinema, and for aiming at making a difference through this magical art.

You have great potentials! I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you next year.