Cairo film festival to return in November

Film festival resumes after last year's cancellation

The 36th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival is scheduled to take place from 9-18 November this year, according to the festival's president, film critic Samir Farid.

The 2014 festival will take place at the Cairo Opera House and will focus on promoting Egyptian productions abroad, as well as increasing Egypt's appetite for art house films.

Last November's festival was cancelled because of the political instability that followed the ousting of president Mohamed Morsi in July. In August 2013 the Egyptian culture ministry said the cancellation was due to a determination to organise the festival "in a manner befitting an international festival that carries the name of the Egyptian capital."

The festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the Middle East, was also cancelled in 2011 following the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. It took place in 2012 although the closing ceremony at the opera house was cancelled due to violent clashes in nearby Tahrir Square.