Hada News
Cairo Industry Days opens three craft workshops, one closing on Tuesday 20 October
Set design closes 20 October; genre series writing and an immersive XR lab close 25 October. All three are for Egyptians or Egypt residents aged 18 and over.
The Cairo International Film Festival has opened applications for three training workshops that will run inside Cairo Industry Days, its trade strand. The 47th festival takes place from 11 to 20 November 2026. The shortest window belongs to a production-design workshop, which stops taking applications on Tuesday 20 October.
Making Place (closes 20 Oct). Production designer Islam Hassan leads a workshop, run with the Kadr project, on how sets, locations and props carry story, character and period on screen. It is aimed at set and production designers, directors, filmmakers, researchers and critics with prior experience in visual storytelling.
Genre series development (closes 25 Oct). Egyptian screenwriter Mahmoud Ezzat works with writers who have an early-stage series in crime, action, horror, fantasy, science fiction or thriller. Applicants need at least one writing credit on a short, a feature or a series. Teams of up to three writers may apply, provided every member works on the project. Writers adapting a book or film must show they hold the rights. The aim is a pitch package that participants can put in front of producers and platforms.
Immersive Storytelling & Production Lab (closes 25 Oct). Run with the British Council in Egypt and led by May Abdallah with Barry Gene Murphy, the lab covers interactive and XR storytelling, hands-on VR/AR sessions, and how such projects are financed. Newcomers to XR are eligible if they have a creative background such as film, media arts or game design.
For all three, applicants must be Egyptian or live in Egypt, be at least 18, and attend every session. Applications go through forms on ciff.org.eg. Separately, the festival has opened accreditation for members of the arts unions and students of the Higher Film Institute.
Why it matters: These are training places inside a festival that describes itself as the only Arab and African event with FIAPF A-category accreditation, and the series workshop ends with a pitch package built for producers and platforms. The set-design deadline is tomorrow.