Hend Sabri. Photo: Getty Images.
Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabri has made history after becoming the first Arab woman to win a Starlight Cinema Award. Her win was chosen at the behest of The Italian Women Journalists Foundation as “a result of her great talent and outstanding artistic career.”
Sabri posted on Instagram to her 2.4 million followers to celebrate her award.
She wrote: “Today I received the #StarlightCinemaAward awarded by The Italian Women Journalists Foundation. Proud to be the first Arab artist to win this award that started in 2014 and won by a large number of global stars, including the world star Al Pacino.”
Sabri joins several international stars who have also won the award, most notably Al Pacino and Andrea Palauro. The Starlight Cinema International Awards began in 2014 and work to promote and honor the talents of national and international cinema, namely actresses, directors, producers, critics and journalists from the film sector.
This is also not the actress’s first trailblazing affair. Sabri became the first Arab woman to join the jury panel for the Luigi De Laurentiis Award at the years’ Venice Film Festival. She too became the first Arab actress to join the Rotterdam Film Festival jury panel in 2016. Not only was she a jury member for the Dubai International Film Festival in 2015, but she also acted as the honorary president of the 1st International Arab Festival that took place in Algeria in 2016.
Read Next: Hend Sabri Will be Joining the Jury Panel at the Venice Film Festival
