The 36th Cairo International Film Festival () was held from November 9âÂÂ18, 2014, including 17 films from ten Arab countries. Six films featured were nominated for the 87th Academy Awards the following year. The jury included four male and four female filmmakers representing the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe as well as the disciplines of direction, screenwriting, production, cinematography, and criticism, headed by Egyptian actress Yousra.
Festival management chose Yousra as the first Egyptian jury chair in the history of the Festival. animated and a documentary films also made their first appearances with one of each. Another unprecedented move was hiring an Egyptian designer, Karim Adam, to design the official poster, featuring local actress Nadia Lutfi.
Lutfi received a special Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening ceremony, and the Festival prepared a documentary on her career that was shown on the second day. The first submissions in Festival history opened from the United Arab Emirates (Ali F. MostafaâÂÂs From A to B) and Iran (Abed AbestâÂÂs The Corner).
Six Egyptian films were featured at the Festival. The International Features category included Karim HanafiâÂÂs Bab Al-Wadaa (âÂÂThe Farewell GateâÂÂ), starring Salwa Khattab and Ahmed Magdy. The Short Film category featured Ahmed AbdallaâÂÂs Décor, starring Kal Naga and Horeya Farghaly, along with Mouhamed RadyâÂÂs Wall of Heroism. The Classics category showed a restored version of Henry BarakatâÂÂs 1965 film The Sin in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday. Finally, the late director and singer-actor Hussein al-ImamâÂÂs black-and-white film Like a Matchstick was screened.
The following were unanimously announced: