Youssef Hesham’s THE NEW TENANT to screen at Opera Film Club

Youssef Hesham’s THE NEW TENANT to screen at Opera Film Club 

Short film THE NEW TENANT by Youssef Hesham is set to screen during the Opera Film Club, which is held monthly at the Cairo Opera House. 

This comes as part of a collaboration between the Opera Film Club and MAD Solutions. 

The screening will be held on Wednesday, November 30th at 7:00 pm at the small hall of the Cairo Opera House. After the screening, there will be a Q&A with Youssef Hesham and other directors of short films. 

THE NEW TENANT world premiered at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival and won the President's Award at Emerson College and Best Director at Zawya Shorts.

The film follows Nader – a young Egyptian man who spent a few months in the United States. After a horrific accident, Nader flees New York and relocates to Boston, where he lives with three strangers. Trying to avoid his dark past while struggling with his own identity, his demons return to haunt him.

THE NEW TENANT screened at several film festivals around the world, including the Silicon Valley African Film Festival, Zanzibar International Film Festival, Souss International Festival for Short Films, One Earth Awards, Hollywood Arab Film Festival, Tiro International Art Festival (Lebanon), and Festival del Cinema di Cefalù in Italy.

Written, directed, produced, and edited by Youssef Hesham, THE NEW TENANT stars Fady Demian, Tanya Avendaño Stockler, Rafael l. Silva, and Gregory Romein. It is lensed by Michael Quill, with music by Sherif Tharwat, and is co-produced by Allam Films (Ramy Allam). Moreover, MAD Solutions is distributing it worldwide.

Youssef Hesham is an Egyptian filmmaker, film expert, consultant, script doctor, festival programmer, and university lecturer. During his 20-year career, he directed many short films, documentaries. He also made a feature film that won several awards. 

In 2017, he attended Emerson College in Boston, where he earned his Master of Fine Arts in Film and Media Arts on a Fulbright scholarship. He also won the President's award for his Boston-set thesis film, THE NEW TENANT in 2020.

Additionally, Youssef was involved in the programming for events such as the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) and the Ismailia International Film Festival. He also worked as a reader for the Cairo Industry Film Festival (CIFF) and as a competition manager for the Realtime Competition at the 2016 and 2017 Cairo editions of the Shnit World Film Festival.

In addition to his duties at The British University in Egypt, where he teaches scriptwriting and oversees graduation projects, Youssef worked as a regional programmer for the CIFF (2020–2021).