The administration of Aswan International Women Film Festival (AIWFF) named director Hala Galal as the festival's artistic director and general supervisor of the fiction competition. Galal is considered the first woman to assume the post of the artistic director of a film festival in Egypt.

The festival's administration also selected Dr. Marwa Abdullah to be the new director of shorts program.

Galal graduated from the Higher Institute of Cinema and Media Faculty of Cairo University. She directed a number of documentaries including Chitchat, Bahaa Taher's Journey, The Cities Choose their Deaths and produced other documentaries and fiction films including The Account, Knocking on the Doors.

She also co-founded Semat production company as well as a number of institutions that aimed at supporting young and independent cinema in the Arab world. She presided over Caravan of Euro-Arab Cinema that was held in Egypt, France, the Netherlands, Jordan and Lebanon. She also gave a number of workshops, teaching cinema in a number of cities in Egypt, Arab and European countries. She was also selected as a member of various juries in domestic, regional and international film festivals including El Gouna, Ismailia, Masr Dot Bokra, International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes (FIPA) and Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF).

Abdullah is a film programmer and an academic who obtained a PhD in film studies. She is working as a programmer since 2006 and is teaching at the radio and television department of Media faculty of Beni Suef University since 2015.

The Aswan International Women Film Festival is planned to be held in Aswan city of Upper Egypt on February 20-26, 2019.