Biography
With an extensive career spanning more than 20 years full of local and international works in the film industry, Egyptian film editor Ahmed Hafez has presented the final cuts of over 20 films and edited numerous TV commercials and music videos. Hafez started his editing career with many TV commercials and music videos. He won 12 local and international awards for his work in six films. Hafez received international acclaim for his work in Clash (2016) by director Mohamed Diab, which opened the Un Certain Regard section at the 69th Cannes Film Festival. American film critic Deborah Young described his editing style as "rapid-fire editing" in her Clash Cannes review in The Hollywood Reporter. For his work in Clash, Hafez received three awards at the Carthage Film Festival (JCC), Cairo Film Society Festival and the Egyptian National Film Festival.
Hafez edited the Jordanian-Turkish feature film The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul (2017), starring Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak and written and directed by Turkish director Andaç Haznederoglu. The film won him the Best Editing award at the International Bosphorus Film Festival in Turkey. Palestinian film Amira by director Mohamed Diab marked his second collaboration with Saba Mubarak, who stars in the film alongside Palestinian actor Ali Suliman. Hafez edited the first episode of the upcoming American action TV series Cypher, an international co-production directed by Tunisian director Majdi Smiri. Hafez is also editing Egyptian director Amr Salama's TV series Paranormal, based on the best-selling Arabic horror books by late author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik. Paranormal marks Netflix's first-ever original Egyptian series. His first collaboration with Salama was in Sheikh Jackson that world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017. His collaboration with successful director/writer duo Marwan Hamed and Ahmed Mourad resulted in some of Egypt's highest-grossing films. Their collaboration started with The Blue Elephant (2016), which gave Hafez good material to experiment with. Hafez worked with Hamed and Mourad in The Originals, which won him four awards, Diamond Dust (2018), which he regards as the closest film to his heart for its storytelling style, and won him the Best Editing award at the Arabian Cinema Awards (ACA). Their latest collaboration is Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers (2019), the highest-grossing film in the history of Egyptian cinema with revenues surpassing EGP 102 million. He is currently joining hands with the dynamic duet once more to create a new book-to-screen film Kira & El Gin that is based on Mourad's best-seller, 1919.
Three of the films mentioned previously are based on successful literary works, which is a direction Hafez has taken in several films and TV series, including the film Hepta: The Last Lecture, based on writer Mohamed Sadek's best-selling novel of the same name. Additionally, the TV series Paranormal, La Tottfe' Al Shams (Don't let the Sun Set) (Ihsan Abdel Quddous), and Fi Kol Esbo' Yom Goma'a (Every Week Has A Friday) (Ibrahim Abdel Meguid), a Shahid.net original series. In 2014, Hafez edited the thriller film Warda by director Hadi Elbagoury and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy. Warda is the first feature film to be shot in the Found-footage style in the Arab world. In 2016, Hafez worked again with Elbagoury in Hepta: The Last Lecture, the highest-grossing romantic film in the history of Egyptian cinema with revenues exceeding EGP 27 million. Hafez won two awards for his work in Hepta: The Last Lecture. Born in Cairo, Egypt, Ahmed Hafez graduated from the faculty of commerce, foreign trade department. he started his editing career when he was still in high school in 1998. Hafez kept up with the development of the film editing techniques, from using linear editing, a traditional tape-based editing system, until using non-linear editing, a computer-based editing system. Hafez's first editing work was an Axe TV commercial directed by Hadi Elbagoury in 1998. After editing many TV commercials and music videos, Hafez edited his first film 45 Days (2007), starring Ahmad Al Fishawy and directed by Ahmed Yousri, followed by Al Rahina (The Hostage) (2006) by director Sandra Nashaat, who he continued to work within the films Masgoon Transit (Prisoner on Transit) (2008) and Al Maslaha (The Deal) (2012). His editing credits also include the films El Shabah (The Ghost) (2007), Badal Faqed (Replacement) (2009), Al Hafla (The Party) (2013), Sukkar Mor (Bitter Sugar) (2015) by director Hani Khalifa, for which he won the Best Editing award at the Arabian Cinema Awards (ACA), Gunshot (2018) by director Karim El Shenawy, and Al Daif (The Guest) by director Hadi Elbagoury and writer Ibrahim Eissa. Hafez is currently editing director Ahmad Alaa Aldeeb's film Al Aref: Awdat Younis, starring Ahmed Ezz. Hafez also edited some of the most remarkable Egyptian TV series. He worked with director Mohamed Shaker Khodeir and screenwriter Tamer Habib in the three TV series; Tareeqy (My Path) (2015), Grand Hotel (2016), and La Tottfe' Al Shams (2017). He also worked with director Amr Salama in his TV series Tayea (2018).
