Highlits from Cairo's 22nd film festival

The 22nd Cairo International Film Festival opened on Wednesday, and on Thursday the festival's films started to be screened in 14 Cairo cinema houses.

During the festival's opening ceremony, the director of the festival, renowned Egyptian actor Hussein Fahmi announced the "surprise of the festival," which is honoring the two prominent Arab filmmakers the Egyptian Youssef Chahin and the Syrian Mustafa al-Aqqad.

Prior to the inauguration ceremony, eight actors were honored. They are Suad Hosni from Egypt, Italian actress Gina Loulou Brijeida, two Italian filmmakers Paulo and Vitorio Tavianai, US actor and producer John Malkovitch, who presides over the judges arbitration committee of the festival, French actress Nicole Garcia, Polish actor and producer Yargi Shtour and Senegalese filmmaker Jibril Mabiti.

Names of two other late Egyptian filmmakers, Ezzeddine Zu al-Fikar and Hassan al-Imam, will also be honored. Some sixty countries are taking part in the festival which will last until December 8, in which 200 films will be screened including 12 Arab films.

Some 19 films from 16 countries are taking part in the festival's official competition, including Syria and Egypt which are each participating with two films and Morocco participates with one film.

On Thursday, the well-known Syrian filmmaker Mustafa al-Aqqad said he chose Scottish actor Sean Connery to play the role of hero Saladdine in a film bearing the same name.

The film will be shot in the US as beginning next year. Al-Aqqad said he agreed on Connery to play the role of the Ayubid Sultan of Kurdish origin in the film, whose budget is estimated at US $ 100 million.

Al-Aqqad said he will not shoot any parts of the film in Jerusalem because its demography "has been changed," adding that the film concentrates in highlighting Saladdine as a tolerant leader who "calls for coexistence among religions."