El Gouna Film Festival Gives Mona Zaki Its Career Achievement Award at Thursday's Opening

Mona Zaki is to receive the Career Achievement Award at the El Gouna Film Festival, presented during the opening ceremony on 15 October, Vogue Arabia reported.

The ninth edition of the festival runs from 15 to 23 October in El Gouna. The award marks a career of more than three decades in Egyptian and regional cinema.

Zaki began acting at 13, after answering a casting call in 1989 for Mohamed Sobhi's stage production Bil Arabi El Faseeh. She appeared in television series including Al Aailah, Layali El Helmiya and Zizinia before her film breakout in 1998 in Edhak El Soura Tetla' Helwa, alongside Ahmed Zaki and Sanaa Gameel. Her later work ranges from Ayam El Sadat and Ehki Ya Shahrazad to Rehla 404 in 2024, and she played Umm Kulthum in Marwan Hamed's 2025 biopic El Sett.

Andrew Mohsen, the festival's artistic director, said her roles "have embodied the varied experiences of an entire generation", pointing to her range across serious drama and comedy and her willingness to take risks on stories about the challenges facing women in Egyptian society.

Zaki said acting "has never felt like just a job" but her way of stepping into different lives and telling women's stories, and called the award "a moving reminder that these stories have truly resonated".

She has previously received the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2020 and Best Actress at the Egyptian Drama Awards in 2023.