"We're trying to bring attention to overlooked films," El Gona artistic director Andrew Mohsen puts Discovery first.

For his first stint at the helm of Egypt's El Gona Film Festival, artistic director Andrew Mohsen wants to expand the scope of what and who audiences will discover on the shores of the Red Sea. Mohsen states that "discovery" is at the heart of this vision, which takes place on the established site of the festival as a showcase.

For his first stint at the helm of Egypt's El Gona Film Festival, artistic director Andrew Mohsen wants to expand the scope of what and who audiences will discover on the shores of the Red Sea. At the heart of this vision, Mohsen asserts, is "discovery," which builds on the festival's established place as a showcase for award-winners and standout titles from Cannes, Venice and Berlin, while expanding its emphasis on emerging filmmakers and films that might otherwise fall out of the spotlight. RELATED STORIES Todd Heinz, Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Bruhl lead Lumiere's star-studded festival opening with Heinz mocking "De Noche," starring Pedro Pascal Chuck Lorre uses the final card of "Georgie and Mandy" to troll the Trump White House because he says he needs Donchey's help.

It is a transformation rather than a break from El Gona's past. Following Marian Khoury, a veteran of the Cairo International Film Festival, Mohsen, who joined El Gouna's programming team in 2023 and later served as Head of Programming, seeks to deepen the festival's ties with Arab filmmakers who continue to develop an international profile, creating a stronger connection with filmmakers across Africa, especially for small international projects, especially where the festival's small projects are relatively competitive. Extremely popular in Variety

"We're trying to bring attention to films that haven't had the same coverage, or films that we feel our audience needs to see," he tells Variety.

Mohsen notes that major festivals can screen around a hundred films a year, but it's often award winners and established directors who remain in the international conversation, while others disappear.

Mohsen, a former film critic, has been in El Gona since 2017. He wants to establish the festival as a meeting point between Arab filmmakers and the international industry, further integrating its selected films with CineGouna, his talent development arm, and its industry.

Internally, this means closer cooperation between the different branches of the festival. Mohsen describes an "open kitchen between us," with teams sharing information about filmmakers, projects, and guests who can connect with different parts of the El Gouna network.

This effort has gained special importance for Arab cinema. Mohsen says that last year El Gouna had only one non-Egyptian Arabic film in the narrative competition and one documentary film, which is the least screening for the region's cinema since the festival began.

Industry-wide competition for films, especially global or regional screenings, is part of the challenge. "We're doing our best to knock on every door to see how we can expand our relationship with filmmakers," says Mohsen.

Projects supported by festivals and other funds can come with screening commitments, so El Gona has responded early by investing through its funding program and approaching filmmakers.

Mohsen also expands the scope of genre cinema programming this year, a choice that he says shows its increasing importance in major international festivals. Another current emerges throughout the selection, though not with any clear plan: fear, either within families, within political regimes, or through anxieties and difficult realities that the characters themselves struggle to identify.

Mohsen points to Miroslav Terzic's Three Weeks Later, a study of Serbian students dealing with the aftermath of a classmate's suicide, as a film in which this unease builds gradually. "When you're watching the film, you feel really uneasy, something's happening, but you can't put your hand on it," he says. "I found that to be consistent with what's happening in the world today."

Another addition is the CineGouna series, led by Egyptian screenwriter Maryam Noum, expanding Sanat's program into a more popular medium, both across the region and in the wider international entertainment industry. Mohsen sees the move as appropriate for Egypt, whose television industry has long provided on-screen entertainment for audiences across the Arab world. "Series, they happen all the time," he says. They are always on sale. So we are very strong. For Mohsen, this power gives El Gona an opportunity to capitalize on a field that is relatively underrepresented in film festivals in the region.

The expansion into serialization is part of a broader effort to make Algona useful for creators beyond simply showcasing their work. For Mohsen, this means building on what the festival can offer filmmakers navigating a more crowded international circuit. "You want exposure, you want communication, you want audiences to react to your film? We can provide all of that."

When asked about the filmmakers he would most like to bring to El Gona, Mohsen has two names on his wish list: Guillermo del Toro and Park Chan-wook on the festival's jury, leading a master class, or simply attending the festival. “My two dreams,” he shares.