Amr Bayoumi
Amr Bayoumi is an Egyptian independent director and screenwriter with over 35 years of
exceptional experience in various fields related to media and filmmaking. He earned a
Bachelor’s degree in Film Directing from the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo, Egypt, in
1985. Amr has received several awards for his work, including his film The Bridge (1999),
which explores the communication gap within a middle-class Egyptian family across three
generations and starred Mahmoud Morsi and Madline Tabar. More recently, his feature
documentary Where Did Ramses Go? (2019) won the Grand Prize at the Ismailia Film Festival,
intertwining personal history with the history of a nation while documenting an extraordinary
event.
Amr began his career (even befo
re graduating) as an assistant director, working with prominent
Egyptian filmmakers and contributing to 10 feature films between 1984 and 1988. He later
moved to the United Kingdom and worked in London between 1988 and 1994 as a film critic for
Al-Arab newspaper, a screening manager, and a publicity manager for United Cinemas
International and Cannon Cinemas Limited. This exposure granted him valuable insights into the
industry, which he continued to apply throughout his career.
In 1995, Amr returned to Egypt and dedicated himself to films addressing social challenges
within shifting societal dynamics, such as The Bridge (1999) and The Girls' Town (2007), which
follows the journey of four girls from rural areas to Cairo and their inner struggles to reconcile
the simplicity of rural life with the harshness of urban reality.
Amr expanded his work further with research, writing, producing, and directing the bold
documentary Conversations About Sex (2010), tackling topics like sexual health in Egyptian
society and exposing harsh realities such as female genital mutilation.
In recent years, Amr has focused on documentaries, including several productions with Al
Jazeera, directing a series of documentaries about post-war Bosnia, cri
