Seeing her as the spiritual mother of the festival and one of its formation supporters, Tunisian star
Hend Sabry will continue to be the Honorary President of the 2nd International Arab Film Festival in Gabès taking place next Saturday, from September 24th to September 30th, 2016.

Sabry expressed her delight saying, "The festival belongs to the south of Tunisia, which is where I belong, and that makes me feel very delighted. I hope for the festival to be a new star that shines in the sky of the Tunisian and Arab culture, a cultural hub and a new platform for the Arab cinema. I believe in cultural decentralization. I believe in the importance of having diverse cultural centers that are also interconnected, like guiding stars in every city and every village so that darkness won't prevail, and that is basically what the festival aims for."

Under the theme of Cultural Decentralization, the International Arab Film Festival in Gabès aims to introduce and promote Tunisian and Arab cinema as well as spreading cinema culture among youths. It also seeks to operate as a bridgehead between audiences and filmmakers and to create varieties of locations or sources for viewing films.

The Festival's screening program encompasses the competitions; Feature Films Competition and Short Films Competition, along with several panel discussions and workshops on the film industry, in addition to tributes for Arab cinema pioneers. This year, the festival is going to pay tribute to the late director Mohamed Khan.

This is not Hend Sabry's first participation in film festivals; the 23 award winning actress was part of many juries, and held administrative and honorary positions in international festivals. In 2015, Sabry has joined the Jury of the IWC Filmmaker Award at the Dubai International Film Festival, which closed on December 16th, 2015. Earlier in the same year, The International Arab Film Festival in Gabès has selected the Tunisian actress as the Honorary President of the first edition of the festival. In October, 2012, Sabry took part in the 2nd TROPFEST Arabia, the world's largest short film festival, as the Festival Co-director. Similarly in November, 2012 the renowned actress headed the Feature Narrative Jury at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.