El Gouna Film Festival is pleased to announce that it is now accepting online submissions of film projects in development for the first edition of CineGouna Springboard as part of the CineGouna Platform, with the deadline for submission set to be August 06, 2017.

The CineGouna Platform, is a creative and business hub that aims to nurture and support the most promising talents from Egyptian and Arab cinema, incubating two main initiatives; CineGouna Bridge and CineGouna Springboard. These unique programs cater to El Gouna Film Festival’s vision to become the most prominent film festival in the region.

CineGouna Springboard is a key component of the CineGouna Platform, seeing that it provides promising Arab projects with a unique opportunity of presenting their material to industry experts for their professional feedback. Naturally, this allows these creators to exercise the ability to evaluate and enhance the potential of their work and find co-production partners.

Applicants should visit El Gouna Film Festival’s official website to submit their application forms and/or read more about the eligibility criteria, including submission and competition rules and regulations. A selection committee will review all eligible projects and will choose 12 projects from the Arab world on the basis of their content, artistic vision, and their overall financial feasibility. Afterwards, a jury of industry experts will choose the winner of the CineGouna Platform Grant of USD 20,000. Additional grants funded by different institutions are expected to join the project and will be announced in due course. The winners of the grants will be announced at a ceremony to be held a day before the closing ceremony of El Gouna Film Festival.

Commenting on the occasion, Festival Director Intishal Al Timimi said, "The CineGouna Springboard is undoubtedly the most prominent component of the CineGouna Platform and El Gouna Film Festival. Not only will it familiarise international producers with the prevalent trends in Cinema from the Arab world, but it will also showcase the newest and the best projects from the region.  Local and regional talent will also gain from the interactions with international producers – it’s a win-win situation.”

The CineGouna Springboard Competition is NOT calling for submissions of projects in post-production; however, the platform will allow members of projects in post-production to apply for the chance of participating and benefiting from “Work in Progress” sessions.

Alongside the Springboard, CineGouna Bridge will be a chance for the young film-making community to immerse into panel discussions, workshops and masterclasses. The Festival hopes that CineGouna Platform enables the world to hear the honest and authentic voices of independent Middle Eastern and North African cinema and to have a positive influence on participating projects.