El Gouna Film Festival has selected five new talents for the third edition of Rising Stars, the program within CineGouna Emerge aimed at emerging audiovisual professionals in the MENA region. The selection brings together Egyptian director Abdallah Dnewar, Saudi writer and director Razan AlSoghayer, Palestinian filmmaker Omar Rammal, Palestinian-Jordanian director and producer Asmahan Bkerat, and Syrian cinematographer, editor, and director Rama Abdi.
For the Red Sea festival, this is not a minor announcement. In an ecosystem where festivals, labs, funds, and markets are often among the few infrastructures capable of connecting creators, producers, and potential international partners, Rising Stars serves to identify professionals who are already active yet still in a consolidation phase. The selected group also offers a meaningful snapshot of contemporary Arab production: short films, feature-length documentaries, narrative cinema, production work, and an increasingly porous relationship between digital formats and the festival circuit.
The initiative was launched in 2024 and is part of CineGouna Emerge, a platform through which El Gouna aims to support the new generation of Middle Eastern and North African film professionals. In turn, CineGouna Emerge is part of the broader CineGouna industry program, which includes Forum panels, the Funding project showcase, the Market, and a new focus dedicated to series. The positioning is significant: the recognition comes within a festival that does not limit itself to programming, but also operates as a hub for project development and circulation.
Profiles already visible on the international circuit
Abdallah Dnewar operates from Cairo and brings to the selection a background spanning production, editorial consulting, and organization. He produced the animated short films My Brother, My Brother, selected at Rotterdam, and Khufu, screened at Locarno; he has also worked as a script consultant on several shorts. Today, he is Head of Specials at the Egyptian media company Zest, where he oversaw the Eish Short Film Competition, an initiative organized in partnership with El Gouna Film Festival and the United Nations World Food Programme. His inclusion in the cohort highlights that the concept of “emerging talent” embraced by the program does not strictly mean a directorial debut: it also includes figures capable of impacting development, production, and support for other filmmakers.
Razan AlSoghayer divides her time between Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. Her work explores femininity, memory, friendship, patriarchy, and coming of age, observed within a Saudi society undergoing rapid transformation. Her debut short film, Son Of Badriyah, is featured in the current edition of El Gouna. AlSoghayer’s presence in the program comes amid a period of rapid expansion for the Saudi audiovisual sector, without reducing that context merely to investments or infrastructure: instead, her work draws from personal experience, everyday life, and a local cultural imagination.
Omar Rammal, born in the West Bank, perhaps represents the clearest example of a crossover between online storytelling and independent cinema. His content has garnered hundreds of millions of views across digital platforms, while his recent work has also earned festival recognition and critical acclaim. In 2026, Everyday in Gaza won the award for Best Documentary Short at Italy’s David di Donatello. His short fiction debut, Kentucky Gaza, arrives at El Gouna for its MENA premiere following its debut in the International Competition at Clermont-Ferrand. Rammal is also currently developing his first feature film.
His case is useful for reading a tangible shift in the region's professional career paths. Digital fame does not automatically replace recognition in auteur cinema, nor do the two realms answer to the same criteria. However, the ability to build an audience through online channels can coexist with the pursuit of funding, co-productions, and festival legitimacy. For a program that selects figures already on the move, Rammal embodies this dual trajectory without one erasing the other.
Documentary, memory and work on images
Asmahan Bkerat works on the themes of uprooting, identity, and cultural heritage. Her first feature-length documentary, Concrete Land, debuted at the Locarno Film Festival and received the Insights Audience Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The film was also presented at the BFI London Film Festival with sold-out screenings and continues its circulation with stops including Dok Leipzig, IDFA, and Doha. In parallel, Bkerat is producing the documentaries If These Stones Could Talk and Landwards, while in the early stages of production on her next feature film as director.
Her selection highlights documentary as an industrial segment, not merely as an artistic language. For works built around memory, territory, and identity, the festival circuit can be decisive in securing visibility, production partners, and sales or distribution opportunities. In the case of Concrete Land, the sequence of Locarno, Vancouver, London, and other international events indicates a circulation already underway; Rising Stars adds positioning within a regional network to that journey.
Rama Abdi, based in Damascus, completes the group with a profile spanning multiple production departments: cinematography, editing, and directing. She began working in cinema in 2018, transitioning from commercial and journalistic productions to cinematic projects as a camera operator and director. Her presence further expands the scope of the selection beyond the conventional image of the single auteur. In audiovisual markets where crews and technical skills can be fragile or inconsistent, professionals capable of moving between different roles form an essential part of the production chain.
A visibility program, not a career guarantee
The third cohort should not be viewed as a list of absolute debuts. The five selected talents already have films, awards, professional experience, or projects in development under their belts. This very choice clarifies the role of Rising Stars: to intercept filmmakers and industry professionals at a stage where a festival credit, a feature film project, or a production role can translate into a leap in scale, provided they secure collaborative networks and ongoing support.
On its own, the program does not guarantee funding, distribution, or selection at major festivals. Outcomes will depend on individual projects, co-production opportunities, and market conditions. However, for El Gouna, the initiative consolidates its position in the MENA autumn calendar as a platform striving to unite talent discovery, the circulation of works, and professional industry activities.
Over the coming months, attention will shift to the works already announced: the regional premiere of Kentucky Gaza, the festival run of Concrete Land, Rammal's debut feature in development, and the projects that each participant manages to push beyond the festival showcase. It is on this terrain, rather than the Rising Star label itself, that the true weight of the selection will be measured.
