Mostafa El Kashef Biography
Mostafa El Kashef is an Egyptian visual artist, producer, and director of photography (DOP), contributing to 13 award-winning films worldwide. His debut feature, 19 B, won the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) in 2022. He began as DOP on the British-Greek production MODERATION by Anja Kirschner, with Egyptian scenes filmed under his cinematography, premiering at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival.
He worked on acclaimed shorts including Jaylan Auf’s MY FESTIVAL (El Gouna Film Festival) and Sharine Atef’s JEBEL BANAT (Tribeca, Student Visionary Award 2019, Cannes Short Film Corner). El Kashef collaborated on THIS IS MY NIGHT by Yousuf Nouman, winning gold FIFOG in Geneva and Best Cinematography at Cinemaz Brasil. In 2021, three of his shorts—CAI - BER (Gouna Star Best Arab Short), KHADIJA, and WHAT WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT MARYAM (Best Cinematography at Galichnik, Jury Award Barcelona)—premiered at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
As cinematographer and co-producer, I PROMISE YOU PARADISE premiered in Critics’ Week at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, winning Valbonne's Audience Award and Rail d’Or, plus Best Film at Melbourne International Film Festival and seven cinematography awards from international festivals. El Kashef completed 19 B, which won three awards at CIFF, and recently shot four shorts (ENOUGH WATER TO DROWN, THE LAST DISMISSAL, NAHAR ABER, PROMISE TO THE SEA) while working on his second feature THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE, recipient of a post-production prize from Atlas Workshops, Marrakech.
Born in Cyprus in 1995, he studied at EICAR and earned his bachelor’s in cinematography at the Higher Institute of Cinema, Cairo. Inspired by his late father, director and writer Redwan El Kashef, he started as assistant cinematographer with top Egyptian DOPs on films like NEW YEAR’S EVE and CACTUS FLOWER, and series such as AFRAH AL QOBA. He also directs commercials (Vodafone, Swvl, Talabat, City Club, Cadbury, Spotify) and music videos (Ahmed Helmy’s EL HARAKA DEE, Aenaba’s EL MELOUK), showcasing his versatile artistry.
Both I PROMISE YOU PARADISE and ENOUGH WATER TO DROWN were produced by his company Qaa’23.
