Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced that acclaimed Egyptian cinematographer Saeed Shimi will receive the Golden Pyramid Lifetime Achievement Award at its 47th edition, taking place from 11 to 20 November 2026, as the festival marks 50 years since its inaugural edition in 1976. The honour recognises his remarkable artistic career spanning more than five decades, his pioneering contributions to the development of cinematography, and his influential role in shaping the visual language of Egyptian cinema through works that have established him as one of the most distinguished cinematographers in the history of Egyptian and Arab filmmaking.
The announcement was made during the festival’s press conference, held today, 11 October, at Sofitel Cairo Downtown Nile.
Saeed Shimi is widely regarded as one of the leading cinematographers in Egypt and the Arab world, with a distinguished career combining artistic sensitivity, technical innovation, research, documentation, and the transmission of cinematic knowledge. Born in Cairo’s Abdeen district in 1943, he graduated from the High Cinema Institute in 1971 and embarked on a prolific career during which he worked as cinematographer on more than 100 feature films, alongside dozens of documentaries and short films, contributing significantly to the enrichment of Egyptian cinema’s visual language.
His name became closely associated with the Egyptian New Realism movement, as his camera captured the details of everyday life and the transformations of Egyptian society, expressing the psychological and human dimensions of characters through composition, camera movement, lighting, and colour. He collaborated with director Mohamed Khan on films including Sunstroke, A Bird on the Road, and The Street Player. He also developed a rich cinematic collaboration with director Atef El Tayeb on The Bus Driver, The Innocent, Love Above the Pyramid Plateau, Execution Squad, and Against the System. With director Ali Abdel Khaleq, he worked on several notable films, including The Shame, Execution of a Dead Man, Running of the Beasts, and Well of Treason.
Underwater cinematography represents a distinctive aspect of Shimi’s career. Considered one of its pioneers in Egypt and the Arab world, he contributed to developing technical and artistic approaches that made it possible to capture underwater sequences with exceptional precision and visual quality. His expertise in this field was demonstrated in films such as Underwater Hell, Devil’s Island, and The Road to Eilat, where he combined cinematographic and diving skills with sophisticated control of lighting and camera movement in challenging underwater environments, opening new possibilities for the use of cinematic imagery in aquatic sequences.
His contributions also extend to academia and film literature, where he has played an important role in teaching cinematography and passing on his expertise to successive generations of filmmakers. He has enriched Arabic film literature with numerous specialised publications exploring the history, aesthetics, and techniques of cinematography, including Underwater Cinematography, The Magic of Colours: From Canvas to Screen, and My Experience with the Cinematic Image. His distinguished career was recognised with Egypt’s State Appreciation Award in Arts in 2024, honouring his longstanding artistic and intellectual contributions.
Honouring Saeed Shimi with the Golden Pyramid Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates an exceptional cinematic figure who has helped shape the visual memory of Egyptian cinema and contributed to some of its most significant films. His career brings together artistic creativity, technical experimentation, and scholarly knowledge, reflecting Cairo International Film Festival’s commitment to recognising outstanding filmmakers whose enduring contributions have left a lasting mark on the history of cinema and helped advance the art and industry of filmmaking.
Cairo International Film Festival is one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals in the Arab world and Africa. It is accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) as an international competitive film festival. Established in 1976, the festival is held annually under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.
