Filmgoers and critics are all excited about the upcoming Carthage Film Festival (CFF) in Tunisia – the oldest of its kind in the Arab world, and the first in Africa, running bi-annually since 1966 and annually since 2014. This year was a good film year for us because six brilliant films straight from Egypt are competing in most categories, to be screened from October 28th to November 5th.

The 'Feature Film' category has two of the most recently critically acclaimed Egyptian masterpieces, Clash (2016), directed by Mohamed Diab, and Sins of the Flesh (2016) by Khaled El-Haggar, while Sherif El-Bendary's Dry Hot Summers (2015) will be competing in the 'Short Film' category. The festival's 'First Feature' category will be seeing Mahmood Soliman's award-winning documentary, We Were Never Kids (2016).

More than the traditional competitions, the CFF launched the Carthage Ciné-Promesses (or 'Promising Cinema), which they only started with the purpose of uncovering new talents and showcasing them to the world. This category will include the film Coma by Yahya Abu Dan and Life's Eye by Wafaa Hussein.

At this point, we just want to throw it out there as well that we're proudly applauding actress Nahed El Sebaee, Farid Shawki's granddaughter, for starring in two of the films being screened – the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? Also a nod to the creative and articulate Mariam Naoum's heading of the 'Promising Cinema' competition. Not to mention CFF will be opening with the film The Flower of Aleppo starring honourarily Egyptian actress Hend Sabry, and one of the seven main juries is our very own director Khaled Youssef.

We're sitting with our fingers crossed hoping we bring home more awards that reflect Egyptians' affinity for acting and cinema – wherever there is film, there is Egypt!