Two Egyptian Films Win Honours at Casablanca Arab Film Festival

The Brink of Dreams and Love Bites — have clinched top honours at the sixth edition of the Casablanca Arab Film Festival, which ran from 13 to 20 June 2025 in Morocco.

Directed by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El-Amir, The Brink of Dreams was awarded the Jury Prize in the Feature Film Competition. The documentary follows a group of young Coptic women from Upper Egypt who form a theatre troupe to perform plays based on local folklore. Through their art, they challenge social norms and spotlight issues such as early marriage, domestic violence, and girls’ education.

The film stars Majda Masoud, Haidi Sameh, Monika Youssef, Marina Samir, Myriam Nassar, Lydia Haroun, and Youstina Samir. It previously won the Golden Eye Documentary Prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in 2024 and Best Feature at the Malmö Arab Film Festival earlier this year.

Love Bites, a 12-minute drama written and directed by Mahmoud Zain, received a Special Mention in the Short Film Competition. The film features Sedky Sakhr, Sohila Alanwar, Nadia Hassan, and Mahmoud Yehia, and tells the haunting story of Hayam, a 20-year-old unmarried woman whose death exposes family taboos when her brothers discover love bites on her body before the traditional washing ritual.

Love Bites premiered at the Aswan International Women’s Film Festival in May 2025 and was also screened at the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival in early June.

This marks another successful year for Egyptian cinema at the Casablanca Arab Film Festival. At the 2024 edition, Maqsoom won Best Actress in the Feature Film category, while I Promise You Paradise took home Best Short Film.