Egyptian Haya Khairat to receive Angénieux Award in CFF

Haya Khairat, Egyptian cinematographer, has been chosen to receive Angénieux Special Encouragement Award at Cannes Film Festival 2023.

She announced on her account on Instagram this week by saying “Grateful, happy and humbled beyond words to be selected for an @angenieuxlenses encouragement award this year alongside the great DOP Barry Ackroyd taking place at the @festivaldecannes,”

The award was launched in 2018 and aims to highlight young talents of cinematography.

Dark Chocolate was Khairat’s debut film that got her the Audience’s Best Short Film Award at the Cairo International Film Festival in 2019.

The award has been given previously to Cecile Zhang from China in 2018, Modhura Palit from India in 2019, Pamela Albarran from Mexico in 2021 and Evelin van Rei from the Netherlands in 2022.

Khairat was born in 1995 and she studied cinematography at the High Cinema Institute of Cairo.

After reciveing her award at Cairo Film Festival she moved to directing, to direct several TV commercial and digital campaigns.