When the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) announced the results of its poll, “Top 25 Egyptian Films of the First Quarter of the 21st Century”, in cooperation with the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the Egyptian Film Critics Association (EFCA), it was not merely a list.
It was a mirror of how Egyptian cinema, in the face of political instability, economic hardship, and shifting cultural dynamics, has managed to reinvent itself without forgetting its essence.
The poll, part of FIPRESCI’s centennial celebrations, was based on 881 films released between 2001 and mid-2025.
Eligible works included theatrical releases, satellite premieres, and streaming debuts, acknowledging how digital platforms have reshaped film distribution.
Sixty-three critics participated in the poll, crafting a list that balances commercial achievements against experimental breakthroughs, memory against contemporaneity, and local interest against global appeal.
On the top of the list is Osama Fawzy’s I Love Cinema(2004), a film that best demonstrates Egyptian cinema’s ability to be universal and intimate.
The film is about a conservative Christian father (Mahmoud Hemida) who views every action as a dreadful sin, including cinema of course. However, his younger son, a regular cinema goer with his uncle, gets inspired by it.
The movie masterfully captures the everyday life detailsof an ordinary Egyptian family. Coming at the top of the list suggests that critics recognised that the fate of Egyptian cinema is still critically linked to its citizens’ narratives.
The survey also points to movies, dealing with memory and belonging. Daoud Abdel Sayed’s Messages from the Sea (2010), comes in second position.
The film follows the story of Yehya, a young doctorconstantly ridiculed by his friends because of his speech disorder.
Yehia decides to call it quits and leave the medical profesion as a whole. Unexpectedly, he decides to work as a fisherman, which allows him to meet interesting people.
Daoud Abdel Sayed’s film, A Citizen, A Detective and a Thief, comes in third place. The film tackles cultural contradictions between three friends who are distinctly different from each other.
In the fourth place comes Yousry Nasrallah’s film, Gate of the Sun (2004), which interweaves Palestinian exile into Egyptian narrative, projecting the dimensions of national cinema into Arab collective memory.
The film tells the story of a family and other people in Northern Palestine, who flee to a refugee camp in Lebanon. It throws light on the impact of the disaster on Palestinian lives and relations between the Palestinian refugees and their reluctant Lebanese hosts.
The list also included Mohamed Khan’s film, In the Heliopolis Apartment (2007), which came in fifth place and Hani Khalifa’s film, Sleepless Nights (2003), which came in sixth place.
The survey also underscores the essential role of women in shaping 21st-century Egyptian cinema.
Hala Khalil’s film, The Best of Times (2004), brings quiet dignity to the struggles of personal independence, while Mohamed Khan’s film, Factory Girl (2014), written with a distinctly female-centred perspective, dignifies the working-class seamstress at its heart.
Hala Lotfy’s film, Coming Forth by Day (2012), with its painterly stillness, redefines cinematic storytelling by finding poetry in silence and domestic routine.
Notably, the list embraces experimental voices that challenged Egypt’s cinematic traditions.
Omar El Zohairy’s film, Feathers (2021), a surreal allegory that polarized audiences, confronted social realities through absurdist imagery, redefining what Egyptian cinema could look like, came in seventh place.
The list is diverse. It contains films with ideas ranging from reality to abstract. It also contains mainstream blockbusters like The Island (2007) and politically–charged collaborations like Chaos, This Is (2007). The list also includes new entries, such as Seeking a Way Out for Mr Rambo (2025). So, the poll recognises both established auteurs and emerging voices.
Together, the 25 films resist simple categorization, proving that Egyptian cinema in the 21st century is multifaceted: commercial yet daring, nostalgic yet experimental, deeply local yet resonant with global audiences.
As part of its official 46th edition publications (to be held 12–21 November 2025), the festival will release a comprehensive book, documenting the poll’s results.
The volume will feature critical analyses of each of the 25 selected films, along with an extensive overview of the key artistic and production trends that have shaped Egyptian cinema over the past quarter-century.
A discussion session will also be organised during the festival to present and debate the book.
