The year 1923 saw the publication of the first periodical review on film "Animated Images" by Mohamed Tawfik who was the owner and Editor in chief.

Youssef Wahbi produced the 1930 film Zaynab starring Bahiga Hafez and based on the 1913 novel under the same name by Mohammed Hussein Heikal.

The first musical was produced in 1933; The White Rose, also directed by Karim , featuring popular Egyptian singer Mohamed Abdel Wahab in his film debut.

[15] Historian Samir Kassir notes (2004) that Studio Misr (founded 1935) in particular, "despite their ups and downs, were to make Cairo the third capital of the world's film industry, after Hollywood and Bombay, but ahead of Italy's Cinecittà.

[22][23] As in the West, films responded to the popular imagination, with most falling into predictable genres (happy endings being the norm), and many actors making careers out of playing strongly typed parts.

In the words of one critic, "If an Egyptian film intended for popular audiences lacked any of these prerequisites, it constituted a betrayal of the unwritten contract with the spectator, the results of which would manifest themselves in the box office.

[36] In this era, an emerging generation of film stars came to prominence such as: Shoukry Sarhan, Soad Hosny, Salah Zulfikar, Rushdy Abaza, Nadia Lutfi, Faten Hamama, Omar Sharif, Kamal el-Shennawi, Shadia, Mariam Fakhr Eddine, Lobna Abdel Aziz, Abdel Halim Hafez, Huda Sultan, Hind Rostom, Farid Shawqi, Zubaida Tharwat, Ismail Yassine, Magda, Laila Fawzi, Ahmed Mazhar, and Sabah.

Notable titles includes; The Night of Counting the Years, Aghla Min Hayati, Cairo Station, The Second Man, My Wife, the Director General, Saladin the Victorious, Return My Heart, A Taste of Fear, The Postman, The Beginning and the End, Soft Hands, The Land, The Thief and the Dogs, There is a Man in Our House, and others.

Films such as 1972's Watch Out for ZouZou by Hassan el-Imam, starring "the Cinderella of Arab cinema", Soad Hosny, sought to balance politics and audience appeal.

Zouzou integrated music, dance, and contemporary fashions into a story that balanced campus ferment with family melodrama.

In The Choice (1970), Chahine explores what he describes as the schizophrenia of the contemporary Arab intellectual, who on one hand is committed to romantic notions of the revolution and social change, and on the other is tied to personal selfish ambitions and goals, remnants of a colonial formation.

[38] Hassan Ramzi's 1975 Egyptian film Al-Rida’ al-Abyad was released in the Soviet Union in 1976, selling 61 million tickets in the country.

Also, a new generation of films stars such as: Ahmed Zaki, Nour El-Sherif, Adel Imam, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Nabila Ebeid, Nadia El Gendy, Yousra, Laila Elwi, Elham Shahin, and Sherihan, emerged during that period.

Actor Khaled El Sawy has described these as films "where there is no story, no acting and no production quality of any kind... basic formula movies that aimed at making a quick buck."

Its controversial subject matter, namely, the sexual undertones in today's society, was seen as confirmation that the industry was beginning to take risks.

There are notable films released in this period, such as; 678, Microphone, Asmaa, The Deal, Decor, Bebo and Beshir, The Blue elephant, Excuse My French, Hepta, Gunshot, X-Large, Papa, After the Battle, Diamond Dust, The Blue elephant 2, The Treasure, Sons of Rizk, The Originals, The Treasure 2, Sheikh Jackson, Casablanca, Sons of Rizk 2, 122, The Crime and others.

In 2017, many films were shown, including: The Cell, Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim, Emergency escape, Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces, Lucky Bank, and others.

[55][56] Famous names of Egyptian actors have often been compared to Hollywood stars: Hend Rostom became "the Eastern Marilyn Monroe"; Rushdi Abaza "Clark Gable"; Mahmoud el-Meliguy "Anthony Quinn of the East"; Salah Zulfikar "Cary Grant", Anwar Wagdi "Robert Taylor".

Sabry stressed that canceling photography fees contributes to the freedom of the writer and director in creativity, the realism of events, and showing all the required locations in the work.

[57] Commercially, Egypt nowadays have several bankable stars, for the last two decades, box-office performers are generally the same, except some new comers of younger generations.

Another film that tackled the issue was Land of Heroes in 1953, directed by Niazi Mustafa, which discussed the problem of corrupt weapons in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

[61][62] Over the past two decades the politics of Egyptian cinema have been shaped by broader issues such as economic globalization and concepts of national identity.

Some films have addressed overtly political themes, including the American Dream injustices inflicted on the Palestinians, and Islamist protest movements.

"[63][64] While the Arab world at the time was in a state of turmoil under the colonization of the leading European countries, the film industry in Egypt was the only source for fame, wealth and a stable life for many of the famous actors and actresses, escaping wars, family conflicts, colonization, drought, and famine – seeing Egypt as the Eldorado of the Middle East and the famous studios as its last hope for survival.

Egyptian film industry was never connected to Hollywood, inspired and affected but not connected, it is a regional force, maybe a film star such as Omar Sharif performed in Cairo and Hollywood and few others, but Egyptian actors mainly are always content with their success and fame on the regional level whether African or Arab, on the contrary of Tunisian and Moroccan industries for instance, however, filmmakers are different regarding their own keenness for international audiences such as Youssef Chahine and Mohamed Diab.

Historically speaking, their cinema contributed in transforming the best of the Islamic and folkloric heritage ingrained within us into memorable flashes of pictures, worth thousands of words.

From the early stages of Egyptian cinema, women assumed leadership positions, helping build and develop the new industry in the 1900s.

Despite, the heavy hand of the state in leading the industry, introducing men in the management positions, women were adopted as a symbol of nationalism.

In the 1950s, through a new generation of actresses such as Faten Hamama in the 1952 film Miss Fatimah, produced by Mahmoud Zulfikar and directed by Fatin Abdel Wahab, where the female lead role was able to work as a lawyer encouraging the women to tackle males in their areas of expertise at the time.

The head of the Federation of Artistic Syndicates, director Omar Abdel Aziz, and other industry leaders, called on the government to give the matter high priority and to consider moving the studios out of urban areas.