Wednesday 08/October/2025 – 08:00 PM
The Academy of Arts and the VS-Film Festival for Very Short Films are now celebrating, in the Dr. Tharwat Okasha Hall at the Academy’s headquarters in Al-Haram, the distribution of prizes for the second edition of the competition for the best essay or critical study about very short films, in the presence of Dr. Ghada Jabbara, President of the Academy, the artist Ilham Shaheen, the festival’s honorary chairperson, and Dr. Walid Shousha, Dean of the Higher Institute of Art Criticism, along with a group of Professors and deans of academy institutes.
Elham Shaheen: I respect every critic who criticizes scientifically because art is a measure of civilization in people’s lives
The artist Elham Shaheen gave a speech while attending the event, in which she expressed her great enthusiasm for the festival, saying: I am one of the most enthusiastic about this event, because young people are our hope for the future, and the festival represents a real opportunity for creatives and talents, who will be great directors and great artists tomorrow.
She continued her speech: I respect every critic who criticizes in a scientific manner, because art is a measure of civilization in the lives of people and those from whom we learn from. This is an important competition for young people to criticize in a scientific manner.
Elham Shaheen continued her speech, saying: I respect every critic who criticizes scientifically, because art is the measure of civilization in people’s lives, and critics are an important part of the artistic system. We learn from them and benefit from their vision. This is an important competition for young people to learn how to criticize works of art in a scientific and objective manner.
Elham concluded her speech by saying: Oh Lord, prizes are always given to those who deserve them, and the festival always follows this approach.
For her part, Dr. Ghada Jabbara confirmed that the aim of the competition is to encourage the submission of research studies and articles that contribute to establishing a real industry of very short films, noting that the competition also seeks to renew the blood of film criticism by discovering young and promising names of scholars, researchers and amateur fans of the art of cinema.
She said: We are proud of our partnership with the VS-FILM Festival for Very Short Films in this qualitative and new competition of its kind in the Arab region, and year after year new names that we need will be presented to the critical arena in this type of films that have become a feature of the current era and we see them as the cinema of the future.
Earlier, the great artist Elham Shaheen, the festival’s honorary chair, said that the festival has taken it upon itself, since its inception, to pay attention to all the details related to the making of the very short film, and we are proud to launch this qualitative competition that is concerned with critical and analytical writings for very short films.
She explained that the competition will witness development and renewal over the coming sessions, whether in terms of the number of prizes awarded or their financial value, to encourage a larger number of people interested in Arab cinema to participate in order to open new horizons for the very short film.
