The fact that a film from the Islamic Republic of Iran won an award in the festival, which came to a close last weekend, was not the only surprise. The award for Best Film went to the French "Big Dilemma," not to a Middle Eastern film. "Big Dilemma" also shared the award for Best Script.

The Egyptian film "All at Once," starring Ahmad Zaki, won three awards: Best Arab Film, 2nd prize for Best Film, and it shared the prize for Best Script with "Big Dilemma."

Mahmoud Abdul Aziz won the Best Actor award, and commentators say that was only because Ahmad Zaki's movie had won so many awards.

The film festival lost its shine this year as businessmen shied away from funding it. Last year, the movies were of poor quality, ticket prices were high and few people came to see the movies. This year most movie theaters refused to show the movies and attendance was low because people were preparing for Ramadan. The festival was moved up from its usual time to avoid coinciding with Ramadan, but that did not help it.

The festival coordinator, Hussein Fahmi, had refused to allow Israeli films to participate. He said they were of poor quality and "do not deserve to be shown anywhere," and that Israeli participation would cause political problems.

Although the festival rejected movies that have graphic sexual scenes in them for fear of offending Muslim sensibilities, the Islamic press in Egypt did not spare the festival. Al-Shaab wrote scathing articles decrying the pornographic nature of the movies and the scantily clad actresses that featured prominently on the movie posters. Fahmi denied that he had allowed any pornographic movies to compete, and said that the deceptive posters were to attract viewers.

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