Biography
Throughout his illustrious journey on the global stage, Mostafa El Kashef — a renowned visual artist, producer, and director of photography (DOP) — has lent his creative prowess to 13 cinematic masterpieces that garnered numerous accolades at several prestigious film festivals around the world. Most notably, his debut feature, 19 B, earned him the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival.
Off to a great start, El Kashef proceeded to work on a series of captivating short films that went on to garner tremendous acclaim at festivals around the globe, including Jaylan Auf’s MY FESTIVAL — which was selected to screen at the inaugural edition of the El Gouna Film Festival — and Sharine Atef’s JEBEL BANAT, which made its way to the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival, won a Student Visionary Award in 2019, and was selected to screen as part of the esteemed Cannes Short Film Corner.
The emergent DOP then collaborated on Yousuf Nouman’s THIS IS MY NIGHT, which triumphantly clinched the gold FIFOG at the International Festival of Oriental Film in Geneva and earned El Kashef Best Cinematography at Cinemaz Brasil.
El Kashef’s breakthrough, however, came in 2021, when he worked on three compelling short films that further established his global renown as an accomplished DOP when they all premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France — Ahmed Abdelsalam’s CAI - BER, Morad Mostafa’s KHADIJA, and WHAT WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT MARIAM, which earned him Best Cinematography at the Galichnik Film Festival.
He then collaborated with Mostafa once again on the short film I PROMISE YOU PARADISE; this time serving as both a cinematographer and co-producer. The short earned El Kashef eight Best Cinematography awards from the Black Sea Film Festival in Romania, the Byron Bay International Film Festival in Australia, the Svaneti International Film Festival in Georgia, the Mieres Under-60 Film Festival in Spain, the Ouaga Côté Court in Burkina Faso, the St Andrews Film Festival in Scotland,the Festival dei Lumi in Soriano nel Cimino and the Indian International Short Film Festival Awards.
He also wrapped up shooting four short films that are set to premiere soon — Joseph Adel’s ENOUGH WATER TO DROWN; Jawaher Alamri’s THE LAST DISMISSAL; Rasha Shahin’s NAHAR ABER, which was officially selected for the 45th CIFF; and Hind Soheil’s PROMISE TO THE SEA —and his second feature-length film, THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE, which is the first ever film to be shot in Somalia to screen at Cannes, where it will compete in the Un Certain Regard section and is the recipient of post-production prize from the Atlas Workshops of the Marrakech Film Festival and a Locarno Industry award.
Both I PROMISE YOU PARADISE and ENOUGH WATER TO DROWN were produced by his very own production company Qaa’23.
