Egyptian cinema
| Cinema of Egypt | |
|---|---|
| No. of screens | 294 (2010) |
| • Per capita | 0.4 per 100,000 (2010) |
| Main distributors |
The Trinity: (Nasr - Oscar - El Massah) Al Arabia Cinema Company |
| Produced feature films (2005-2009) | |
| Total | 42 (average) |
| Number of admissions (2010) | |
| Total | 31,000,000 |
| Gross box office (2010) | |
| Total | $74.7 million |
The cinema of Egypt refers to the flourishing film industry based in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Since 1976, Cairo has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival, which has been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations. There is also another festival held in Alexandria. Of the more than 4,000 short and feature-length films made in Arab countries since 1908, more than three-quarters were Egyptian.
While a limited number of silent films were made in Egypt from 1896 (with 1927's Layla notable as the first full-length feature), Cairo's film industry became a regional force with the coming of sound. Between 1930 and 1936, various small studios produced at least 44 feature films. In 1936, Studio Misr, financed by industrialist Talaat Harb, emerged as the leading Egyptian equivalent to Hollywood's major studios, a role the company retained for three decades.
Historians disagree in determining the beginning of cinema in Egypt, there are those who said that beginning in 1896 with the first film watched in Egypt, while others thought that the beginning of cinema in the June 20, 1907 with a short documentary film about the visit of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II to the Institute of Mursi Abul-Abbas in Alexandria. In 1917, the director Mohamed Karim established a production company in Alexandria. The company produced two films: Dead Flowers and Honor the Bedouin, which were shown in the city of Alexandria in early 1918.
Since then, more than 4000 films have been produced in Egypt, three quarters of the total Arab production. Egypt is the most productive country in the Middle East in the field of film production, and the one with the most developed media system.
The 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s are generally considered the golden age of Egyptian cinema. As in the West, films responded to the popular imagination, with most falling into predictable genres (happy endings being the norm), and many actors making careers out of playing strongly typed parts. In the words of one critic, "If an Egyptian film intended for popular audiences lacked any of these prerequisites, it constituted a betrayal of the unwritten contract with the spectator, the results of which would manifest themselves in the box office."
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