Middle Eastern country that made films, which many other countries in the Middle East looked up to. Some of the Arab countries would attempt to copy the Egyptian melodramatic formulas and would make the film in the Egyptian dialect. With time, there were many changes that led many Egyptian filmmakers to start gradually making their movies in Lebanon instead. First, the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 made it less stable politically in Egypt. Second, the nationalization of the film industry (1962) in Egypt slowly brought more restrictions to the films until the film censorship laws that were issued in 1976. The Egyptian presence in Lebanon impacted the Lebanese film output. Between 1963 and 1970, half of the movies that were produced in Lebanon were in the Egyptian dialect. Eventually, the Egyptians moved back to Egypt due to the civil war in Lebanon. Following the censorship in Egypt, there was an increased sense of morality and modesty on screen (from the late 1960s to the 80s). These constraints led a change in film movements from romance and love stories to new realist and melodramatic realism. This wave impacted many of the films from today. According to Ibrahim Farghali, an Egyptian journalist, "To me, the Egypt of today seems influenced by the ’68 movement in its call for change, the surmounting of traditional values, and liberation from oppression, whether political, social, ethical, or religious". More recently, the film The Square (2013) which was a documentary about the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. Although Egypt's film industry is not as powerful as it was before due to growing financial issues, it still dominates the Arab Cinema output especially in mainstream cinema where it outputs up to 77% of the films. That is because of an already established ecosystem for Egyptian cinema that saw its rise in the 1960s. Today, it includes leading regional players such as the distribution company MAD solutions. In addition to that, Egypt hosts a variety of film festivals which help sustain the local film culture, including notable regional festivals such as the El Gouna film festival, which boasts an impressive lineup of stars every year. Notable Directors and Films Iraq History of the industry Iraq has a long history of cinema since their independence in 1921. In the course of 82 years, from 1921 to 2003, 100 films have