GCTP Awards 50,000 EGP for the Top Three in the Short Film Competition “Towards a Better Life”

In last Friday night, the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace and the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema held an Award Ceremony, the First Edition for the Short Film Competition “Towards a Better Life”, in the Nile Theater of Franciscan Fathers, Downtown Cairo.

The Ceremony took place in the presence of the Speaker of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, Ahmed Bin Mohamed AlJarwan, the Director of the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema, Father Boutros Daniel, and the President of the General Assembly for Tolerance and Peace, Dr. Hajar Abu Jabal.

The Ceremony was also attended by the Acting Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in Cairo, Chancellor Dr. Maryam Khalifa Al Kaabi, who participated in award distribution.

The Minister Plenipotentiary, Samia Bibars, and the Minister Plenipotentiary, Dr. Raed Ali Saleh Al-Jubouri have participated in the Ceremony, coming from the League of Arab States.

The Ceremony marked the attendance of the stars, Lebleba, Lekaa Elkhamissi and Jumana Murad, as well as the great director Magdy Abu Emeira, and several artists, innovators, honorees, filmmakers of the participating films, and media personnel.

The Ceremony began with the screening of a documentary film on the accomplishments of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace and the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema.

It presented a summary of 15 films in the competition, as a result of the competition for the top positions.

The Ceremony Presenter has invited all Film Directors to the stage to receive the Certificates of Participation and take photos.

Then, Ahmed AlJarwan made his address, noting two happy occasions, as this week witnessed the celebration of the International Day of Peace, and this night witnessed honoring the winners of the Short Film Competition “Towards a Better Life”, organized and supervised by the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace and the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema in Egypt.

Adding: “We have worked together with Father Boutros Daniel to set a framework for cooperation between the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace and the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema. We worked together to unify and develop the structure of this cooperation to achieve the mutual objectives between us, with a belief of the importance of art and creativity in dissemination of the culture of tolerance, upholding the values of peace and upgrading peoples and societies, in addition to the significance of the role of youth in promoting the nation”.

“AlJarwan” followed, “So, with Father Boutros Daniel, in Umm Al-Dunya, Egypt, we launched the first competition of its kind, in which the participants compete for the best short film award, named “Towards a Better Life”, since the competition lasted for over a month, in which nearly 40 competitors participated, and the Jury selected three winners”.

“AlJarwan” applauded all works in terms of content, presentation and diversification, which reflects the participants’ enthusiasm, creativity and eagerness to participate; they are all winners.

He stated that this accomplishment could not have been fulfilled without three fundamental pillars that we had to depend on, namely: belief in tolerance and peace values to impact on life of both individuals and society, science and knowledge to serve society on the ground, and the youth enthusiasm for change and coexistence.

The Speaker of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace pointed out that we live in a world witnessing profound changes and unprecedented challenges in the pursuit of humanity for durable peace and sustainable development, such as climate change, gender inequality, poverty, armed conflict, corruption and human right violations; thus, our role currently is to properly choose between peace and war, between openness and isolation, and between unity and division.

He continued, “While the world strives to recover from the Corona pandemic and its social and economic consequences, this week we celebrated the International Day of Peace, the theme of which was “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world””.

He emphasized that the time for change has come to unify our efforts to build a sustainable future and a world of peace and stability through spreading the values of tolerance and peace, appreciate our human values and our human relationship, stop discrimination, wars, terrorism and violence, and invest in education, science, medicine and technology.

On the other hand, “AlJarwan” has highly appreciated the proactive steps made by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi regarding the inauguration of the national strategy for human rights, reflecting the punctual role of Egypt in enhancing and protecting the social, economic, political, and cultural human rights.

The Global Council Speaker has strengthened that youth are the backbone and fuel of the nation and that there will be no change unless youth are positive active partners in establishing peace and supporting tolerance, and are in the center of every dream. Therefore, we have a great responsibility to work together, side by side, to build human values, enhance tolerance and peace and empower youth everywhere.

Father Boutros Daniel, in turn, stated during his address, “Since meeting brother H. E. Ahmed AlJarwan for the first time with Father Mourad Migallah, we found understanding, convergence and integration in human thoughts and perceptions which we have to strive to disseminate, in addition to upholding values of love, tolerance and peace among human beings”.

He stressed that the center celebrated this year the Festival of the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema in its 69th edition, coinciding with this ancient and oldest film festival in the Arab world, the birth of the first edition of the Short Film Competition “Towards a Better Life”.

Father “Boutros” noted that in this premises and above this theater, most of the giants, stars and pioneers of Egyptian cinema stood to receive their first awards at the beginning of their artistic career, stating that the Lady of Arab Screen, Faten Hamama, received her first award in this place while she was still a child.

He added, “thus, we have to respond to invitations of many young people to hold a festival and a short film competition in order to motivate innovators to develop more meaningful works that reflect human and moral values”.

The Speaker of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, the Director of the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema, and the Acting Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, honored the members of the Edition Jury: President of the Academy of Arts, Dr. Ghada Jbara, film director, Saad Hindawi, and the two artists: Lekaa Elkhamissi and Jumana Murad.

The Ceremony presented a “Promo” for the two films praised by the Jury, “Ghosn Al Karma and Carbon”, and the two directors of the two films, Hani Samir Abdel Hamid, and Bishoy Maher Kamel, were called to the theater to receive the Certificates of Appreciation.

“AlJarwan”, “Daniel” and “Al Kaabi” honored the guests of honor of the edition with the Artistic Creativity Award, for the artist “Lebleba”, the great director Magdy Abu Emeira, and the artist Ashraf Abdel Baqi.

At the end of the ceremony, Ahmed AlJarwan, the Speaker of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, handed over the prize money for the top three places of the competition, whereas the film “Watan bil Ekhtiar”, directed by Hanan Mohamed Madi, won first place and an amount of 25,000 EGP; the film “Adam”, directed by Nermin Edward Morcos, won second place and an amount of 15,000 EGP; and the film “Hafid A’aielat Murad”, directed by Abanoub Youssef Zarif, won the third place, and an amount of 10,000 EGP.

It should be noted that on May 18, 2021, Ahmed Bin Mohamed AlJarwan, the Speaker of the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, and Father Boutros Daniel, director of the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema, signed an agreement to organize a short film competition, under the title “Towards a Better Life”.

The joint cooperation agreement between the Council and the Center aims to create joint frameworks for cooperation, consolidate the bonds of love based on cooperation and peace, promote tolerance values through sharing expertise, organize joint events and adopt initiatives and contributions supporting peace and tolerance in societies, with the aim of citizen support and human values’ promotion without discrimination.

The participant films in the competition were submitted during the period from Saturday, July 10, 2021, until Saturday, August 28, 2021, at the Nile Theater of Franciscan Fathers.

The Organizers conditioned that the film shall be a short fiction or documentary that does not exceed 15 minutes and conform to the competition conditions.