Al Ismaelia’s Soirée – First Edition

Cinema Radio has long occupied a singular place in Downtown Cairo’s cultural memory. Once a fixture of the city’s cinematic life, the historic venue is now being reactivated as a contemporary cultural space under the stewardship of Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investment.

This February, Cinema Radio hosted the latest edition of the Cine Radio Awards at Studio Samara, held as part of the first edition of a wider cultural soirée curated by Al Ismaelia, in collaboration with Triple Thread (concept and planning) and Ape Studio (production). The soirée brought together artists and cultural practitioners shaping Downtown’s evolving creative landscape.

The awards foreground cultural contribution over commercial scale, recognising sustained work across literature, visual arts, craft, and independent cultural spaces. In that sense, the ceremony reflects a broader approach to Downtown Cairo’s revival – one that relies on adaptive reuse, where restored heritage buildings are not preserved as monuments but repurposed as sites of ongoing cultural production.

The 2026 Cine Radio Awards recipients are:

• Nihal Schawky (Diwan), recognised for her role in shaping Cairo’s literary and cultural scene
• Mina Noshy (Access Art Space), for expanding access and experimentation within contemporary art
• Seif El Rashidi, Mohamed Amin, and Naila El Shishiny (El Kheyameya), for sustaining and recontextualising Egypt’s khayamiya craft tradition

Positioned as an annual platform, the Cine Radio Awards point to the role of long-term collaboration in sustaining cultural life in the city, framing heritage as an active infrastructure for contemporary culture.