Mostafa El Kashef, EICAR alumnus and director of photography on Ben'Imana, Caméra d'Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival
EICAR-trained director of photography Mostafa El Kashef shot Ben'Imana, the debut feature by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, winner of the Caméra d'Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Presented in the Un Certain Regard section, the film became the first feature from the African continent to receive this distinction, awarded each year to the best first film. The recognition adds a new chapter to the long-standing story between EICAR and the Croisette.
An EICAR training focused on the image
Born in Cyprus in 1995 into a family of filmmakers, Mostafa El Kashef is the son of director and screenwriter Radwan El Kashef, a major figure in Egyptian cinema.
It was in France, at EICAR, that Mostafa set out to train in filmmaking in 2012, joining the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Filmmaking.
It was in Paris that he developed his sense of framing and learned the fundamentals and discipline of lighting, before continuing his studies and cutting his teeth in Egypt, gradually establishing his own visual signature.
A cinematographer at home on the Croisette
Mostafa El Kashef's career is marked by repeated visits to Cannes. In 2023, he shot I Promise You Paradise (selected for Critics' Week). The following year, he worked on Mo Harawe's The Village Next to Paradise, the first film shot entirely in Somalia to be selected at Cannes.
With Ben'Imana, he takes a new step forward. The film follows Vénéranda, a survivor of the genocide against the Tutsi, who becomes involved in Rwanda's community courts of justice and reconciliation. To this material of great intensity, his cinematography brings a sensitive visual treatment. "We approached the imagery of Ben'Imana as something that had to be both vast and intimate, where the landscape and the character's inner life constantly echo one another," he told IndieWire.
This sensitive imagery was praised by the Caméra d'Or jury and by critics alike, with the film also receiving the FIPRESCI Prize.
EICAR at Cannes: a presence confirmed year after year
The recognition of Mostafa El Kashef is no isolated case: for years, EICAR alumni and instructors have regularly found themselves on the Croisette. The 2026 edition is a fine illustration. In the same Un Certain Regard section, director Rudi Rosenberg, a 2008 graduate, presented Quelques mots d'amour to a standing ovation. And on the Caméra d'Or jury, chaired by Monia Chokri, sat Michel Benjamin, director of photography and EICAR instructor.
Before them, others had already flown the school's colours high. Sameh Alaa won the Short Film Palme d'Or in 2020 for I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, a first for an Egyptian film, while Adriano Valerio, a former student who became an instructor, left Cannes in 2013 with the Short Film Special Mention for 37°4 S.
And every year, it is also the school's students who cover the festival, present on the Croisette alongside our media partners to capture its highlights.
Edition after edition, EICAR makes its mark at Cannes — from the school's benches all the way up the steps of the Palais des Festivals.