Omar El Zohairy(I)

Omar El Zohairy an Egyptian director studied Cinema at the Cairo Cinema Institute and worked as an assistant director alongside some of Egypt's most prominent directors, including Youssef Chahine, Yousry Nasrallah and Sherif Arafa. His first short film Breathe Out (2011) won the Jury Special Mention Prize at Dubai International Film Festival. In 2014, his second short The Aftermath of The Inauguration of The Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 was the first Egyptian film to be selected for the Cannes Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. The film went on to screen at several film festivals around the world winning numerous awards, including Best Short Film at Durban International Film Festival and Best Student Live Action Short (over 15 minutes) at Palm Springs International ShortFest.

Feathers is El Zohairy's first feature film. The film previously won the Grand Prize of the International Critics' Week at 2021 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first Egyptian feature film to receive this award in the history of the festival, the FIPRESCI award for the best first feature in Cannes's parallel sections. Afterwards, it went on to screen at several international film festivals winning awards, including Best Film at Roberto Rossellini Awards of the 5th Pingyao International Film Festival; Special Mention at New Horizons International Film Festival in Poland and El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film at El Gouna Film Festival. Feathers swept the awards circuit at the 32nd Carthage Film Festival (JCC), winning 4 awards: the festival's top award, Golden Tanit for Feature Fiction Film, First Film Jury prize, which went to Omar El Zohairy; Prize for Best Screenplay awarded to El Zohairy and Ahmed Amer and Prize for Best Female Performance that went to Demyana Nassar.

El Zohairy is also the winner of Variety Award for the MENA talent of the year 2021.