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Just over six years have passed since Saudi Arabia announced the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban as part of a strategy to open up the country and move its economy away from a reliance on oil.

In a sign that things were already bubbling prior to the Ministry of Culture’s official announcement in December 2017, the country’s Saudi Film Festival (Sff), taking place in the Eastern Province city of Dhahran, will mark its 10th anniversary from May 2 to 9.

The event grew out of under-the-radar screenings in the early 2000s at a local culture association of arthouse DVDs, subtitled into Arabic by an underground outfit.

“We were fighting to screen films in public,” recounts Sff’s founding director Ahmed Almulla, the artist and poet who spearheaded the screenings. “Things changed in the blink of eye. It’s a revolution, what’s happened in Saudi Arabia with art and culture.

Exclusive: Rising Saudi Star Mohammed Elshehri has been announced as master of ceremonies at the 10th edition Saudi Film Festival, running from May 2 to 9 in the Eastern Province city of Dhahran.

Elshehri is the star of hit Mbc Ramadan comedy TV series Road Trip (Sekket Safar), which has just completed its third season run.

He also hosted the first season of Mbc reality game show One Million Dollar Land and also starred in Saudi musical movie Valley Road after getting his acting breakthrough in Mbc platform Shahid’s hit crime and drama The Fates Hotel.

“Like many great festivals we exist to promote our local talent. Mo is a rising star in our country and the region,” said Saudi Film Festival head Ahmed Almulla.

“We’re so proud of what he has accomplished and believe he will be one of the greatest actors of our time. We are very honored...

Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow are among the high-profile names that have been added to the popular ‘In-Conversation’ sidebar section at the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list of attendees.

Further In-Conversation add-ons include Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt and Catherine Martin.

They join previously announced attendees such as Ranveer Singh (Gully Boy), Katrina Kaif (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), Yasmine Sabri (Bogeyman), Will Smith, Bollywood legend Karan Johar (My Name is Khan), and Baz Lurhmann, the head of this year’s competition jury at Red Sea.

“The In Conversation line-up this year has some of the most iconic names in entertainment from across the globe, who are each trailblazers in their fields,” Mohammed Al-Turki, CEO of the Red Sea International Film, Festival said. “They are converging on Jeddah to give festival-goers an insight into their work and inspiration – from multihyphenate creators...

Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp, will have a special screening at the festival

The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) has unveiled the line-up for its Competition and Arab Spectacular strands.

The festival will take place from November 30-December 9 in the port city of Jeddah under the theme ’Your Stories, Your Festival.’

Red Sea Iff’s line-up throws a spotlight on films made in the Mena region and includes 36 feature length and short films from Saudi Arabia, including documentaries and titles produced by the Red Sea Film Foundation.

The Competition strand includes 17 films from Asia,...

Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp, will have a special screening at the festival

The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) has unveiled the line-up for its Competition and Arab Spectacular strands.

The festival, which takes place from November 30-December 9, will also give special screenings to Maïwenn’s historical romance Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp, which was supported by Red Sea’s financing arm and opened Cannes, and to Dhafer L’abidine’s Saudi-uae co-production To My Son, which world premieres at the festival.

Red Sea Iff’s line-up throws a spotlight on films made in...

Saudi Arabia’s top local film distribution player CineWaves Films has announced the opening of a China office that it claims makes it the first Arab cultural entity to establish a physical presence in the world’s second-largest movie market.

The official announcement was made over the weekend during the Arab-Chinese Animation Forum by Zha Yindong, the deputy mayor of the city of Suzhou; and Saudi film industry pioneer Faisal Baltyuor, founder and CEO of CineWaves Films, in the presence of Chinese government representatives and cultural sectors.

“There are a lot of initiatives that are being taken in Saudi Arabia when it comes to cinema,” Baltyuor told Variety Tuesday on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival. “There are collaborations with Hollywood and with Europe in the West, but I didn’t see any initiatives being taken towards the Far East.”

That’s why few years ago Baltyour went to China and tried to connect.

Opening is part of strategy focusing on international expansion and new opportunities for Saudi films worldwide.

Leading Saudi Arabian distributor CineWaves Films has opened an office in China as part of a strategy focusing on international expansion and opening up opportunities for Saudi films worldwide.

CineWaves Film said the new office – in Suzhou, a city west of Shanghai – was the first to be opened by an Arab cultural entity in China.

The announcement came during the Arab-Chinese Animation Forum last week. The Forum aims to foster cooperation between China and Arab countries in IP rights, talent training and the joint...

Moviegoing in Saudi Arabia has come a long way since April 18, 2018, when “Black Panther” premiered to a packed crowd in a converted symphony hall in Riyadh, ending the country’s 35-year ban on public screenings prompted by an ultraconservative Islamic wave that started in the 1980s.

Cut to three-and-a-half years after the “Panther” premiere — at which men and women sat together as they watched the Marvel superhero — and when it comes to watching movies on the big screen “things have evolved on different levels,” says Carlo Vincenti, head of Italia Film, which is Disney’s distributor in the region.

Today there are 57 state-of-the-art cinema sites in 16 Saudi cities for a total of more than 500 screens. Admissions have soared from 149,000 from just two venues in 2018 to more than 13 million tickets sold at 53 different locations in 2021. Box office in 2021 was 238 million for the year, a 95 increase compared with 2020. Expectations are that Saudi...

The Red Sea International Film Festival, which is Saudi Arabia’s first international film fest, is ramping up operations with the appointment of French industry veteran Julie Bergeron as head of its nascent market.

Ahead of its first edition, to be held March 12–21, 2020, in Jeddah, they’ve also announced funds providing up to $3 million in support for emerging Arab filmmakers and cash prizes totaling $350,000.

Bergeron has been head of industry programs at the Cannes Marché du Film as well as project manager of its Ventana Sur Latin American offshoot, and she has also worked for the now-defunct Dubai film market, among other roles.

Bergeron joins a high-caliber team that includes former Sundance fest documentary programmer Hussain Currimbhoy, who is the Red Sea fest’s artistic director; Dubai’s former top exec Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who is managing director; Antoine Khalife, also a Dubai fest veteran who is director of the...

New ‘Yusr’ awards are named after a type of black coral found in the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia’s new Red Sea International Film Festival, which will launch its inaugural edition in Jeddah on March 12-21, 2020, will mete out nearly $3m worth of cash prizes and investments, making it one of the most generous film festivals in the world.

The new event has revealed it will ward a total of $350,000 in cash prizes to winners of its international competition running across six categories.

The top prize, the Golden Yusr Trophy for best feature, will carry a $100,000 cash prize while the...

Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival, set to be held March 12–21 next year in Jeddah, has announced cash prizes totaling $350K and up to $3M in support for emerging Arab talent. Filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh (Barakah Meets Barakah) is Festival Director and CEO with former Sundance documentary programmer Hussain Currimbhoy as Artistic Director, and Shivani Pandya Malhotra, previously of the Dubai International Film Fest, as Managing Director.

At the first Red Sea event, there will be a purse of $250K for films in competition, organizers said. The Golden Yusr Trophy for Best Feature carries a $100K cash prize and the Silver Yusr Trophy for Best Director will be presented with $50K. A Silver Yusr Trophy will also be awarded for Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Cinematic Contribution. An Audience Award will see $50K go to the winner.

An additional Golden Yusr Trophy awarded for Best...