Under condemnations and threats of boycott from Egyptian film directors and intellectuals, the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), the oldest film festival in the Middle East, has backpedaled from an earlier decision to pay homage to French film director Claude Lelouch during its 40th edition next month.
The cancellation comes after several artists and intellectuals protested the festival's decision to give the Faten Hamama Honorary Award to the French director, on the grounds that he is "a supporter of Israel" and called the country his homeland during a visit in 2016. Lelouch, whose film “A Man and A Woman” won the Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1966, comes from a Jewish-Algerian family.
