Cairo Film Festival Turns 50 With a Rocky-Themed Opener

The Cairo International Film Festival opens its 47th edition with I Play Rocky, a film directed by Peter Farrelly. The festival runs from Nov. 11 to 20, and it is marking 50 years since it was founded, according to Variety.

The opening film is about Sylvester Stallone. It follows his fight to get his screenplay for Rocky made, and his insistence on playing the lead role himself. The original Rocky came out in 1976, the same year the Cairo festival was founded.

The lineup brings together 145 films from 64 countries. Of those, 17 are world premieres and five are international premieres. The largest share is regional: 87 are Middle East and North Africa premieres, meaning they have not been shown anywhere in the region before.

Hussein Fahmy, the festival's president, told Variety he wants younger Egyptians to rediscover the country's cinematic heritage. He also wants Cairo to stand alongside the world's major film festivals.

For a general audience, a film festival is a showcase where new films are screened for the public, critics and buyers. Premieres are the first screenings of a film, and the label tells you how far a film has travelled before reaching Cairo. A world premiere is a film's first public showing anywhere. A regional premiere is its first showing in a particular part of the world.

The mix of premieres suggests where the festival's programme is focused. Most of its new titles are being seen for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa, not around the globe. That gives local audiences an early look at films that may take a long time to reach cinemas elsewhere.