5 in Tunis, Gabes, Djerba, and Ghar El Melh.
"Cultural life has been enlivened once more after a rather difficult period in Tunisia and all the world," said Culture Minister Hayet Ketat Guermazi in opening the festival.
On the program are several hundred films from 72 countries including 23 African, 17 Arab, and over 32 international participations.
The guest of honor for this edition is Saudi Arabia, with homages to Tunisia's Hichem Rostom as well as the director Kalthoum Bornaz and Yamina Bachir Chouikh (Algeria), Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi (Morocco), Naky Sy Savané (Ivory Coast), and Daoud Abdel Sayed (Egypt).
Three large prizes will be given in the four main sections of the festival - feature films and short films, as well as documentary short films and feature films): the Gold, Silver and Bronze Tanit.
The jury for feature films and short films is chaired by Morocco director Mohammed Abderrahman Tazi, whose film "Fatema, La Sultane Indimenticabile" on the socialist feminist Fatema Mernissi -who died in 2015 - opened the festival.
The "Parallel Visions" section will include a special focus on the Italian director Federico Fellini sponsored by the Italian Institute of Culture in Tunis with seven films including three by Fellini and four on his works. There will also be special guests including Francesca Fabbri Fellini, a concert entitled "The Fellini Variations" by pianist Mario Mariani, and an exhibition on images from the Fellini film "Libro dei Sogni". (ANSAmed).