Yousra Inaugurates the Sawiris Cultural Awards Ceremony

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Guest of Honor at the 2019 National Festival for Egyptian Cinema

Yousra Inaugurates the Sawiris Cultural Awards Ceremony


Egyptian star Yousra will inaugurate the 14th Sawiris Cultural Awards Ceremony that will be held tomorrow, January 25, at the Cairo Opera House. During the ceremony, the winners of the Sawiris Cultural Awards Competition will be announced in the categories pertaining to creative writing, while a large audience including ministers, ambassadors, artists, and intellectuals will be in attendance.

The Sawiris Cultural Awards Competition was established in 2005 by the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development to support artistic creativity and present new up-and-coming talents. The late costume designer Shams El-Etreby sought to implement the idea for the award as she was a founding member of the Sawiris Award Board of Trustees. She will also be honored during this year's ceremony with a screening of a documentary film about her life and her contributions to supporting creativity, culture and heritage.

In addition, the National Festival for Egyptian Cinema announcing selecting superstar Yousra as the guest of honor of the festival's 45th edition, which is considered as the second oldest Egyptian film festival. The National Festival for Egyptian Cinema will be held for a week, from Saturday, January 26 and will include eight Egyptian films.

Recently, Yousra participated in the opening ceremony of the 16-day campaign under the theme "Orange the World: #HearMeToo; End Violence against Women and Girls" at the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in collaboration with the United Nation (UN) team concerned with the issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women. This comes as part of her activities and interests in the affairs of marginalized groups and women, in the Arab world, as well as her role as a Goodwill Ambassador with the United Nations Development Programme.

Throughout her long career, Yousra has participated in more than 100 projects, including three films that were included in the list of the 100 Best Films in the History of Egyptian Cinema. Yousra worked with many celebrated directors and three of her films were listed among the 100 best Egyptian films. For her exceptional performances, Yousra received more than 80 awards along with many certificates of appreciation and honors from international festivals, including the Cairo International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris, and the Royal College of Physicians in London. Moreover, she was selected as a jury member at many film festivals, including the Cairo International Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, and the Abu Dhabi International Environmental Film Festival. She is also on the Middle East Advisory Council of America Abroad Media (AAM).

Besides her acting career, Yousra is also a singer who has several songs under her belt, including 3 Daqat that was released during the opening ceremony of the 1st El Gouna Film Festival and has more than 500 million views on social media. As a fashion icon, Yousra was chosen to join jury of the final season of Project Runway Middle East.