Cairo International Film Festival 2026
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The Cairo International Film Festival returns for its annual run from 11 to 20 November, one of the oldest and most established film platforms in Africa and the Arab world. Accredited among the world’s competitive festivals, it has for decades been the point where African, Arab and international cinema meet in one city.
Cairo’s festival carries the weight of its history and its geography. Held in a capital that has long been a centre of Arab film production, it draws filmmakers, producers, critics and distributors into a programme of premieres, retrospectives and competition, and it remains one of the few African festivals with genuine standing on the global calendar.
For audiences it is a rare chance to see the year’s international cinema and its regional currents side by side, argued over by people who take film seriously. For the continent it is a reminder that one of the world’s enduring festivals has run, year after year, from an African city.