By Faten Omar

In the presence of the former Information Minister Mohammad Al-Sanousi, the seventh edition of the "Stars of Art and Media" Festival kicked off on Wednesday, taking place at Millennium Hotels in Kuwait City. The festival is a milestone cultural event that is set to celebrate and honor Gulf and Kuwaiti actors, actresses, and media figures.

Jamal Al-Edwani, festival director, stated that the annual award is for encouraging Kuwaiti, Gulf, and Arab drama, adding "Stars of Art and Media Festival honored a number of stars of cinema, media, sport in Kuwait for their contributions during Ramadan, where the award was as an appreciation and gratitude for their distinguished role that has achieved success on all social media and TV channels."

Photo shows (from left) Malak and Basma Hamada pose with their awards during the event.

He expressed his overwhelming joy to host the festival after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "Our selection of the stars at the Art and Media festival is great, especially having the former Information Minister Al-Sanousi who is considered one of the pioneering names that left a great imprint and influence in the history of Kuwaiti media since the sixties of the last century."

Al-Edwani noted that honoring elites in the fields of art, media, drama, and sports is a kind of appreciation that this edition of the festival and all previous ones is keen to do, pointing out that the reveling the names of winners in the "Gulf Oscar" was an honor to him.

Photo shows Mohammad Al-Sanousi honoring TV presenter Ghada Al-Rozouqi.

On the mechanism of selecting these names for winners, Al-Edwani said "Under the leadership of media judge, Ali Hassan Al Rayes, the Director-General GCC Joint Program Production Institution, who has worked since the first edition of the festival in 2016 in assuring the transparency and credibility in the selection process. The festival witnessed the presence of a group of artists and media professionals, including the singer Shams and actors Abdul Imam Abdallah, Dawood Hussain, Ismael Al-Rashed, and others.

A group photo during the event.