Festival President

Saad Hendawy

Current job:

Film and TV director

President of Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Short films (IIFF).

Hendawy studied film directing and obtained a BA and then a diploma in cinematography from the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo.

Some of pervious movies directed by Mr. Hendawy:

Film (Halet Hob/ Stat Of Love), produced in 2004, starring Hani Salama - Tamer Hosni - Hend Sabry - Zeina - Maha Abu Auf - Muhammad Murshid

The film was shown at Mons International Festival for Love Films, Belgium in 2005, Tetouan Festival in Morocco in 2005, and the Amiens Festival in France in 2005.

(Alwan Al Sama Al Sab’aa/ The Seventh Heaven), production 2007, starring Laila Elwi - Farouk El-Fishawy - Sawsan Badr - Ahmed Ratib - SherifRamzy - Hassan Mustafa

The film won the Best Actor Award and the Best Sound Award from African Movie Academy Awards, and A Special Mention from the Cairo International Festival in 2007, the Firs/Second feature film Award from National Egyptian Film Festival in 2008, and the Best Cinematography Award from Alexandria Film Festival in 2005.

(Al Safah/Assassin), production 2009, starring Hani Salama - Nicole Saba - Khaled Al-Sawy - Sawsan Badr - Sami Al-Adl.

The series (Zay Al-Ward/ Like a flower), the first Arabic series in sixty episodes in 2012, starring Youssef Al-Sharif Salah Abdullah - Dora - Muhammad Najati - Hani Adel - Ahmed Daoud - Fedra - Ahmed Yahya..

The series (Kelmet Ser/Password) in 2016 starring / Latifa - Hisham Selim - Hassan Youssef - Reham Abdel Ghafour - Ahmed Salah Hosni.

Teaching, training and workshops:

Teachingfilm directing and film making in-

Raafat Al-Mihi Academy.

Art Lab.

First Step Workshop.

One Shot Film School.

Two workshops in the Sultanate of Oman, in Muscat and Salalah.

Workshop in the State of Kuwait.

A workshop for directors from the African continent and Egypt in the tenth session of the Luxor African Film Festival.

He held the position of artistic director of the International Cinema of Tomorrow competition at the Cairo International Film Festival, since its establishment and for three consecutive sessions from 2014 to 2016.

Headed the Egyptian delegation at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2017.

Held the position of Senior Developer for talent in Abu Dhabi Media from March 2019 to September 2020.

General Managerof (I am a film) production and distribution company - based in Cairo - which owns a platform of the same name for recording films at international festivals.

He worked as a programmer/consultant for major film festivals, such as the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France, the Locarno Festival in Switzerland in its 2005 session, and Dubai International Film Festival for many years.

Member of the Board of Directors of the Cairo International Film Festival 2013-2014 headed by Mr. Samir Farid, the board that was honoured to update the festival's list and present it to the world in a new form and developed concept.

He participated in many jury committees in film festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand for Short Film 2007, Dubai International Festival 2009, and chaired the jury of the African Women and Cinema Festival in Marseille-France 2009, and also participated as a jury member in Tetouan Festival for Mediterranean Countries - Morocco 2010 Tangiers International Festival in Morocco in 2014, Tangiers Festival for Mediterranean Countries in 2019.

He directed a group of short fiction and documentaries, and won many international and local awards for it, including (A Visit in the Fall) short fiction, (An Ordinary Sunday) short fiction, (The Last Scene) short fiction, and (special file) A long documentary, which had its world premiere at the Dubai Festival in 2008, along with (Doaa... Aziza), which is a long documentary that had its world premiere at Dubai International Film Festival also in 2012, and it won the Special Jury Prize from Tetouan Festival in Morocco 2013, and the Grand Nile Prize from Luxor Festival 2013.