The first edition of the El Gouna Film Festival (22 - 29 September) has witnessed intensive activities by superstar Hend Sabry who has been appointed as a member of the festival's International Advisory Board that includes a number of key Arab and international film professionals and joined the all-expert panel of the Tayarah workshop.

Alongside Hend Sabry, the International Advisory Board included; Tunisian producer and distributor
Tarek Ben Ammar, Egyptian superstar Youssra, Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, Palestinian actress, writer and director Hiam Abbas, Syrian director Mohamed Malas, French-Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, and Mauritanian director and producer Abderrahmane Sissako, in addition to American star Forest Whitaker and German star and filmmaker Margarethe Von Trotta.

On the sidelines of the festival, Sabry contributed to the launch of Tayarah workshop which aims to support fledging filmmakers by receiving short film treatments to select the best of which to join an all-expert panel on filmmaking and digital content to discuss and develop these ideas in order to find this one treatment that can be developed as a short film produced by Tayarah in 2018. The first prize went to Adam Abdel Ghaffar's Fork and Knife, Khaled Khella's film Public Indecency won the second prize, while the third prize went to Cinderella by Youssef Nasser.

Alongside Sabry, the jury members of Tayarah include scriptwriter Tamer Habib, director Amr Salama, Pakistani director Mridu Chandra, Head of Products and Services at Vodafone Egypt Yosr Taher, and Co-founder of Tayarah Mohamed El Bassiouni.

Through Tayarah, Sabry took part in the launch of the new game show El'ab Ya Negm on Instagram, where she was featured in its opening episode. The next episodes featured several A-list stars, such as: Yousra, Amina Khalil and Amr Salama.

On Saturday, the 23rd of September, Hend Sabry was hosted Khalid Mansour and Shadi Alfons in a live interview of Twitter Boat. She has been also featured in several interviews during her presence in the festival.

Most recently, Hend Sabry has topped the Top 10 Arab Actresses in 2017 list that is issued by the Forbes Middle East every year, and that came after Sabry ranked the 27th on the list of the Top 100 Arab Celebrities that the magazine revealed last August.

The magazine listed Hend Sabry in the first-place judging on the number of her followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube with more than 8.73 million followers. The selection criteria was also based on Sabry's activities in the film industry and other influential activities, including her work as a UN Goodwill Ambassador, according to the Forbes Middle East website.

Hend Sabry's latest cinematic works is the historical film Al Kinz (The Treasure) by director Sherif Arafa where she played the role of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut. Last Ramadan, Hend Sabry took part in the TV drama Halawat Al Dounia which received a wide acclaim, especially between Egyptian females. In Halawat Al Dounia, Sabry plays the role of a woman who is diagnosed with cancer shortly before her wedding. After absorbing the shock all by herself, she begins to reshape her new life and unexpectedly falls in love. Sabry was honored many times for her role in TV drama, and most recently she attending an honoring seminar that was organized by the High Commission of the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema on Wednesday, the 27th of September at 07:00 pm.