Background
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, Samir Farid, "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." Since the 1990s, Egypt's cinema has gone in separate directions. Smaller art films attract some international attention but sparse attendance at home. Popular films, often broad comedies, battle to hold audiences either drawn to Western films or, increasingly, wary of the perceived immorality of film.
إيرادات السينما المصرية [Egypt Box Office]
10 Things You Didn't Know About Egyptian Cinema - The Culture Trip
Intoruction to Egyptian CInema
100 years of Egyptian Cinema, a timeline
The earliest projections using a “Lumière” cinematograph in Egypt took place on the 15 November 1896, at the Toussoun Exchange in Alexandria [s.a. Omar Toussoun] then in Cairo on 28th November, that is, less than one year after the first projection in Paris, on 28 December 1895. Egypt’s first “Lumière cinematograph” cinema opened its doors in Alexandria in 1897. By 1926 (and the end of the silent cinema era) 86 cinemas were operating in Egypt.
Key dates:
• 1911: adoption of the first law on cinema in Egypt;
• 1923: publication of the first periodical review on film (“Animated Images”, Mohamed Tawfik was the owner and Editor in chief);
• 1924: publication of the first book on film “The Dawn of Cinema”, written by the director and researcher Mahmoud Khalil Rachid (1894-1980);
• 1925: creation of the very first large production company, the Misr Corporation for dramatic arts and film. It belonged to the Misr Bank, which had been founded in the wake of the 1919 revolution by Talaat Harb (1867-1941). In 1935, the Misr Corporation for dramatic arts and film inaugurated the first full film studio modelled on Hollywood studios. The Misr Studio was the largest cinematographic studio in Egypt, the Arab world, Africa and the Middle East, and it remains so today, although it was sorely tried after its nationalization by the central bureaucratic administration.
- The Early Years of Documentaries and Short Films in Egypt
- Lost Continent: Cinema of Egypt - Movies List on MUBI
- Arab cinema: the early years - Al-Bab
The Rebirth of the Seventh Art in Alexandria
AlexCinema - Bibliotheca Alexandrina "Alex Cinema retraced the birth and development of the “seventh art” in Alexandria beginning with the inauguration of the Lumière Brothers’ Cinematograph in 1897 and the work of the earliest Alexandrian cinematographers. The project documented the establishment of a dynamic cinematographic industry nurtured by the city’s cosmopolitan atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship. "
*The History of Egyptian Cinema - RISING STARS
*Introduction to Egyptian Cinema (BY SAMIR FARID)
*Egyptian Filmmaker Gives Context to the 2011 Revolution (Public Radio International (PRI))
*New Generation Of Egyptian Filmmakers Challenging Mainstream Film Industry Post-Revolution / By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act July 3, 2013.
*Egyptian Films and Their Makers (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1996, pgs. 14, 54, 55)
*War reporter-turned movie maker turns camera on Egyptian slums
*Egypt filmmakers suffer from censorship, bureaucracy
*Egyptian State Feminism on the Silver Screen? Depicition of the New Woman in Egyptian Films of the Nasser Era (1954-1967) by Maro Youssef
*Egyptian women film directors
*Mid-Century Cairene Movie Posters, Urban Space, and Resistance to the West / Kerr Houston
*Egyptian State Feminism on the Silver Screen: The Depiction of the “New Women” in Nasserist Films (1954-1967)
Suggested Readings
EGYPTIAN STATE FEMINISM ON THE SILVER SCREEN: THE DEPICTION OF THE “NEW WOMAN” IN NASSERIST FILMS (1954-1967) / Maro Youssef
Mid-Century Cairene Movie Posters, Urban Space, and Resistance to the West / Kerr Houston In the decade after the revolution of 1952, Egyptian films often echoed the political ideals of the new regime—and the movie posters produced in conjunction with those films sometimes embodied officially articulated attitudes toward Western influence and Egyptian history.
The Changing Portrayal of Dancers in Egyptian Films
Arabic Film: Presenting Diverse Dialects, Regions, and Cultures in the
'Made in Egypt?' Egyptian films seen as knock-offs of Western
Screening Egypt: Reconciling Egyptian Film's Place in "World Cinema" Omar Kholeif, Royal College of Art and FACT, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, UK -- IN: Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies Issue 19 February 2011
Plight of Women in Egyptian Cinema - White Rose Etheses Online
Salah Abu Seif and Arab Neorealism / OUISSAL MEJRI Journal Title: Wide Screen. Vol. 3, No.1, June 2011. ISSN: 1757-3920. Published by Subaltern Media, 153 Sandringham Drive, Leeds LS17 8DQ, UK.
Analysis for Selected Comedy Films in Egyptian Cinema - EMU I-REP
10 Things You Didn't Know About Egyptian Cinema - The Culture Trip
Egypt filmmakers suffer from censorship, bureaucracy - Al-Monitor
Legally or illegally? How to make a film in Egypt | Mada Masr
Egypt: New film censorship law drafted « Artsfreedom
Egypt's Independent Cinema: Government neglects award-winning
Egypt: Cinema and Revolution - Michigan State University
Kissing in Egypt: A Criminalized Taboo | Egyptian Streets
Censoring Movies in Egypt | Alexandra Kinias
Interview with SHERIF MANDOUR, on cinema in Revolutionary Egypt
Guides. Directories. Indexes
*EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR FILM DISTRIBUTION AND THEATERS
*EGYPTIAN COMPANY FOR FILM STUDIOS
* EGYPTIAN RADIO & TV UNION *EGYPTIAN TELEVISION (ETV)
*Egyptian Film Industry Production and Distribution Companies
*Lost Continent: Cinema of Egypt - Movies List on MUBI
*Introduction to Egyptian Cinema (BY SAMIR FARID)
*Egyptian Posters, Egyptian Films
*Egyptian women film directors
*Dictionary of African Filmmakers
*Lost Continent: Cinema of Egypt - Movies List on MUBI
المعهد العالي للسينما - أكاديمية الفنون - * egyptartsacademy
دليل السينما. Publisher: وزارة الثقافة، المركز الفنى للصور المرئية Contributor:Bibliotheca Alexandrina
List of Selected Egyptian films
1920s Egyptian films: Pre-1930
1930s List of Egyptian films of the 1930s
1940s List of Egyptian films of the 1940s
1950s List of Egyptian films of the 1950s
1960s List of Egyptian films of the 1960s
1970s List of Egyptian films of the 1970s
1980s List of Egyptian films of the 1980s
1980s List of Egyptian films of the 1980s
2000s List of Egyptian films of the 2000s
2010s List of Egyptian films of the 2010s
Streaming. Egypt
Watch free Egyptian Movies & TV Series online English subtitles
Arabic Movies Online Egyptian Castle
Most Popular Titles With Country of Origin Egypt
SotwesooraHD Watch Egyptian Arabic Movies in HQ online “Now you can Enjoy the absolute best quality Egyptian and Arabic movies Available on the Internet!! The Fastest Streaming regardless of your connection speed!”
Watch Egyptian Movies & Films Online “Watch Egyptian films & movies online, or stream on your TV via Roku…”
موقع السينما العربية و المصرية : أكبر قاعدة بيانات الأفلام والمسلسلات Largest Movies Database
.Kanopy [EGYPT] 
thousands of classic feature films, educational shorts and documentaries [·Cornell University on Kanopy platform which you can access with your Cornell login: If a title doesn’t show up in a search let me know and we’ll contact Kanopy and ask them to acquire it [from the library's online catalog].
.Alexander Street Press [EGYPT] have deals on their packages, which the library has bought, but do sell individual titles now as well .
Biographical Sources
The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine's Cinema by
In a major addition to the academic library on the cinema of Youssef Chahine and on Arab and Egyptian cinema in general, Malek Khouri here presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date study on Chahine's work to appear since his death in 2008. The methodological approach of the book, and more precisely the discussion of the theme of Arab national unity from a post-colonial point of view, emphasizes the ideological underpinnings of this Egyptian director's themes as well as his esthetics.The author focuses on the interaction between Chahine's personal and political preoccupations, his eclectic cinematic style, and his devotion to connecting with a wide audience of filmgoers. The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine's Cinema is an important contribution to original scholarship in the fields of cultural studies, sociology of film, and history of cinema, and will be of great interest to scholars, students, and cinema lovers all over the world.
ISBN: 9774163540Publication Date: 2010-05-01
Youssef Chahine's 89th Birthday - Google يوسف شاهين
- Ṣalāḥ Abū Sayf @ Cornell University Library Catalog
- Salah Abou Seif : cinéaste egyptien / Khémais Khayati.
- Egyptian Film Critic Samir Farid, Ambassador of Arab Cinema
Bahiga Hafez
(بهيجة حافظ)
بهيجة حافظ - ﻣﻮﺳﻴﻘﻰ فيلموجرافيا، صور، فيديو - السينما
Bahiga Hafez's 112th Birthday - Google
Who is the Google doodle's Bahiga Hafez?
Bibliography/Videography
- The Arab National Project in Youssef Chahine's Cinema by ISBN: 9774163540Publication Date: 2010-05-01
Making Film in Egypt by
An ethnographic study of the Egyptian film industry The enormous influence of the Egyptian film industry on popular culture and collective imagination across the Arab world is widely acknowledged, but little is known about its concrete workings behind the scenes. Making Film in Egypt provides a fascinating glimpse into the lived reality of commercial film production in today's Cairo, with an emphasis on labor hierarchies, production practices, and the recent transition to digital technologies. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observation among production workers, on-set technicians, and artistic crew members, Chihab El Khachab sets out to answer a simple question: how do filmmakers deal with the unpredictable future of their films? The answer unfolds through a journey across the industry's political economy, its labor processes, its technological infrastructure, its logistical and artistic work, and its imagined audiences. The result is a complex and nuanced portrait of the Arab world's largest film industry, rich in ethnographic detail and theoretical innovations in media anthropology, media studies, and Middle East anthropology.
ISBN: 9789774169854Publication Date: 2021-03-02
Egyptian Cinema and the 2011 Revolution: Film Production and Representing Dissent by
Egypt's film industry is the largest in the Middle East, with an output that spreads across the region and the world. In the run-up to and throughout the 2011 Revolution, a complex relationship formed between the industry and the people's uprising. Both a form of political expression and a documentation of historical events, 'revolutionary' film techniques have contributed to the cultural memory of 2011. At the same time, these films and their makers have been the target of increasing state control and intervention. Ahmed Ghazal, drawing upon his own background in film-making, looks at the way in which Egyptian film has shaped, and been shaped by, the events leading up to and beyond Egypt's 2011 revolution. Drawing on interviews with protagonists in the industry, analysis of films, and archival research, he analyses the critical issues affecting the political economy of the industry. He also explores the technological developments of independent productions and the cinematic themes of dictatorship, poverty, corruption and police brutality that have accompanied the people's calls for freedom - and the counterrevolution that has tried to suppress them.
ISBN: 9780755603145Publication Date: 2020-11-26
Popular Egyptian Cinema : gender, class, and nation by Call Number: Olin Library PN1993.5.E3 S424 2007ISBN: 9774160533Publication Date: 2007-06-30
Arab Americans in Film by ISBN: 9780815636717Publication Date: 2020-07-15
Africa's Lost Classics : New Histories of African Cinema by
Until recently, the story of African film was marked by a series of truncated histories: many outstanding films from earlier decades were virtually inaccessible and thus often excluded from critical accounts. However, various conservation projects since the turn of the century have now begun to make many of these films available to critics and audiences in a way that was unimaginable just a decade ago. In this accessible and lively collection of essays, Lizelle Bisschoff and David Murphy draw together the best scholarship on the diverse and fragmented strands of African film history. Their volume recovers over 30 'lost' African classic films from 1920-2010 in order to provide a more complex genealogy and begin to trace new histories of African filmmaking: from 1920s Egyptian melodramas through lost gems from apartheid South Africa to neglected works by great Francophone directors, the full diversity of African cinema will be revealed.
Call Number: Olin PN1993.5.A35 A47 2014ISBN: 9781351577397Publication Date: 2017-07-05
*Egyptian Culture on Film: Paradigms of Culture Change at Disparate Time Periods / Author: Kamal AlEkhnawy. Publisher: Sefsafa Publishing House
"This book tackles and spans, through film, a wide spectrum of social mobility and paradigms of culture change in Egypt over time as depicted in films form the 1940s to the present time to meet and serve unity in diversity, mutual understanding, and critical thinking.
*Waqāʾiʻ al-sīnimā al-Miṣrīyah fī al-qarn al-ʻishrīn / Abou Shadi, Aly. Dimashq : Wizārat al-Thaqāfah fī al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah al-Sūrīyah, 2004.
Olin Library PN1993.5.E3 A26 2004
- An Introduction to the Egyptian Cinema. Author, Mohamed Khan. Edition, illustrated. Publisher: Informatics, 1969. ISBN, 0902214004, 9780902214002.
- Egypt* Egypt Filmography [American University Library]
فاتن حمامة وهي طفلة، من تاريخ إنتاج فيلم «يوم سعيد» مع الموسيقار محمد عبد الوهاب
| سينما «فاتن حمامة» تواجه مصير الهدم
Cinema Journals & Periodicals
كاميرا = مجلة كاميرا Camera. Majallat kāmīrā. [Cairo, Egypt] : [publisher not identified], 2015- [location: uris Oversize TR845 .K36]
Cinema press in Egypt : the first half of the 20th century = صحافة السينما فى مصر : النصف الاول من القرن العشرين / by: Farīdah Marʻī, Madkūr Thābit & group of researchers. Ministry of Culture; Egyptian Film Center [بالعربية والانكليزية] 376, 112 p. : facsims. [location: olin PN4784.M6 S54 1996] [GoogleBks]
عالم السينما = Film realm. [2006] /-------------القاهرة : جمعية نقاد السينما المصريين،
Ciné-images. Alexanderie [Egypt]: Maison d'Edition Al-Hilal, [1920s-] Weekly (Free).
دليل السينما. Dalīl al-sīnimā. [al-Qāhirah] al-Markaz al-Fannī lil-Ṣuwar al-Marʼīyah. Annual. Issued by: Markaz al-Fannī lil-Ṣuwar al-Marʼīyah, 1970- ; Markaz al-Thaqāfah al-Sīnimāʼīyah, <1988/1990-1991/1993>
الفيلم. مجلة الفيلم Majallat al-fīlm. Irregular. al-Qāhirah : Jamʻīyat al-Nahḍah al-ʻIlmīyah wa-al-Thaqāfīyah, Nādī Sīnimā al-Jizwīt, 2014-
مجلة الفيلم متوفرة في مقر جمعية النهضة العلمية والثقافية جيزويت القاهرة
[Location: olin Oversize PN1993.F414 (No.1 --)]
فرجة : ǂ شهرية سينمائية. Furjah : shahrīyah sīnimāʼīyah. [Cairo, Egypt] : al-Sharikah al-Ahlīyah lil-Ṣiḥāfah wa-al-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 2016- [Location: olin Oversize PN1993.5.E3 F87 + (No.1 --)]
Iḥṣāʼ tawzīʻ al-aflām al-sīnimāʼīyah bi-al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah al-Muttaḥidah / al-Jihāz al-Markazī lil-Taʻbiʼah al-ʻĀmmah wa-al-Iḥṣāʼ. [al-Qāhirah] : al-Jihāz [1960s]. Motion pictures Distribution & Statistics.
الاستوديوا. al-Istūdiyū. [al-Qāhirah : Dār al-Jayb] Weekly. Began in 1947.
كواكب السينما. Kawākib al-sīnimā - al-ʻAdad 1 (Sibtambir 22, 1934);
المسرح والسينما. al-Masraḥ wa-al-sīnimā. [al-Qāhirah], al-Muʼassasah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Taʼlīf wa-al-Nashr. al-sanah 5 (al-ʻadad 49-58); Yūniyū 1968-Dīsimbir 1968. Represents a temporary merger of al-Masraḥ and the first eight nos. of al-Sīnimā, which appeared independently with no. 9, Aug. 1969.
نظرة = Nazra. al-Qāhirah : Simāt lil-Intāj wa-al-Tawzīʻ, [2002]- Irregular [Independent filmmakers]
al-Sīnamā Monthly. Publications for Aug.-Oct. 1969 issued by al-Muʼassasah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʼĀmmah lil-Taʼlīf wa-al-Nashr; Nov. 1969-Oct./Nov. 1970 by the body under its later name: al-Hayʼah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Taʼlīf wa-al-Nashr.
Sīnī-film. Ciné film (1950) Arabic and French. "Majallah khāṣṣah bi-shuʼūn al-sīnimā fī al-Sharq."
السينما الجديدة : ǂ كتاب غير دورى تصدره جمعية نقاد السينما المصريين. al-Sīnimā al-jadīdah New cinema. al-Qāhirah : Jamʻīyat Nuqqād al-Sīnimā al-Miṣrīyīn, [2002]- Chiefly in Arabic; some English.
السينما المصرية في موسم. al-Sīnimā al-Miṣrīyah fī mawsim. كتاب 1-] -1967/68 Annual. Editor: 1967/68, ʻAbd al-Munʻim Saʻd.
al-Sīnimā al-Miṣrīyah = Le cinéma égyptien = Egyptian films. [Cairo, Egypt?] : al-Muʼassasah al-Miṣrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Sīnimā wa-al-Idhāʻah wa-al-Tilīfizyūn, al-Sharikah al-ʻĀmmah li-Tawzīʻ wa-ʻArḍ al-Aflām al-Sīnimāʼīyah, 1963- Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.
al-Sīnimā wa-al-nās = el Cinema wal nas. [al-Qāhirah], [al-Jamʻīyah al-Miṣrīyah li-Fann al-Sīnimā] al-sanah 1.- Yanāyir 1979-
السينما والتاريخ. al-Sīnimā wa-al-tārīkh. Cinema & history. al-Qāhirah : Samīr Farīd, 1992- Quarterly.
الصور المتحركة الاسبوعية. al-Ṣuwar al-mutaḥarrikah al-usbūʻīyah. Movies weekly. "The first cinematographical review in Egypt." Cairo : ǂb M.M. Tewfic, 1923-1925.
ابيض واسود (Cairo, Egypt) Abyaḍ wa-aswad (Cairo, Egypt) : Wizārat al-Thaqāfah, al-Hayʼah al-ʻĀmmah li-Quṣūr al-Thaqāfah, [2008]-
al-Fann al-sābiʻ = Al fan al sabea. (Cairo, Egypt) Monthly.
الفن. al-Fann. al-Iskandarīyah : Dār al-Ḥayāh al-Miṣrīyah, [1986]-
سينما- al-Sinīmā. al-Qāhirah : al-Muʼassasah al-Miṣrīyah lil-Taʼlīf wa-al-Nashr, 1969-
Cinema & Film Review & Critique
Film Posters
Twentieth-century Egypt in film posters – in pictures: A hoard of hand-drawn cinema art, collected in a new book, charts the cultural shifts of the country. www.theguardian.com