Director Kamla Abouzekri's A Day for Women Wins Audience Award at Arab Film Festival Rotterdam

Back to Press Releases

The Film's Second Award in October

Director Kamla Abouzekri's A Day for Women Wins Audience Award at Arab Film Festival Rotterdam


Director Kamla Abouzekri's film A Day for Women has won the Audience Award at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam. In the same month, the film also won the award for Best Screenplay at the Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq, in addition to taking part in the Cape Town International Film Festival and the Beirut Film Festival.

The Arab Film Festival Rotterdam is an artistic forum where a nuanced image of the cultural, political, social and artistic situation in the Arab world is shown and in which films about hot topics in the Arab communities in Europe are programmed. By doing this, Arab Film Festival creates space for an open dialogue about art, human rights, emancipation and political freedom in Arab countries and in Europe as a whole and in the Netherlands in particular.

A Day for Women takes place in a shabby neighborhood in Egypt where a youth center decides to allocate one day on the swimming pool for women only. The film follows the consequences of this decision on the social, psychological and emotional life of the women living in that neighborhood.

A Day for Women had its world premiere at the 60th BFI London Film Festival, run by the British Film Institute (BFI), within the Debate Strand section. The film competed in the official competition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), where its star Nahed El Sebai won the Best Actress Award for her role in the film. Moreover, the film's stars Elham Shahin, Nelly Karim and Nahed El Sebai all won the Best Actress Award at the Kazan International Muslim Film Festival in the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia.

A Day for Women brings together a cast and crew of outstanding women, as it is produced by Elham Shahin, who also stars in the film, through her company Shahin Film, directed by Kamla Abouzekri, written by Hanaa Atiyah, DOP Nancy Abdel Fattah and Costume Designer Inas Shahin. The film stars Nelly Karim, Nahed El Sebai, Hala Sedqi, Ragaa Hussein, Shaimaa Seif, along with Mahmoud Hemida, Farouk Al Fishawy, Ahmad Al Fishawy, Eyad Nassar, and Ahmed Dawood. MAD Solutions handles the film's marketing and promotion in the Arab world.