Cairo International Film Festival 2026

About the Festival

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) is the oldest film festival in Africa and the Arab world, running continuously since 1976 and holding full FIAPF accreditation alongside Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. It runs for ten days each November, typically opening around 13 November.

The main competition programme screens international features competing for the Golden Pyramid award. Alongside the competition, CIFF runs several parallel sections: a retrospective strand, a short film programme, a children’s cinema section, and the Arabic Cinema panorama which showcases new Egyptian and regional Arab productions. Industry events, masterclasses, and Q&A sessions with filmmakers are woven through the schedule.

Why Attend

CIFF is one of the few international festivals that consistently programmes films from African, Arab, and Asian cinema that do not travel widely in European or North American distribution. If you are interested in cinema beyond the usual art-house circuit, the ten-day programme is genuinely distinctive.

Screenings take place at several Cairo venues including the Cairo Opera House on Gezira Island and cinemas in the downtown Wust el-Balad area. The opening and closing ceremonies at the Opera House are ticketed events that tend to sell out early; regular screenings are more accessible.

Practical Information

Tickets: Single screening tickets are available through the official CIFF website and at venue box offices. Passes covering multiple screenings or the full programme are sold in advance; check the festival website for current pricing as of 2026.

Getting around: Most venues cluster around Tahrir Square, Gezira Island, and downtown Cairo. The Cairo Metro serves Tahrir directly. Taxis and ride-hailing apps (Uber, Careem) are reliable for getting between venues in the evening.

Accommodation: Cairo hotel prices can rise slightly during festival week, particularly near the Opera House area on Gezira. Booking two to three weeks in advance is sufficient for most budgets. Downtown Cairo or Zamalek are the most convenient bases.

What to expect: Screenings are subtitled in English for non-Arabic films. The festival atmosphere in central Cairo during November is lively; temperatures are comfortable at around 22-25°C. We recommend building some slack into your schedule as programmes can shift, and queue times for popular screenings can be longer than the ticketing suggests.

See our Cairo city guide for hotel and restaurant recommendations during your stay.