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Continuing its tradition of celebrating excellence in Arab cinema, the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) has announced the nominees for the ninth edition of its annual Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Leading the pack with five nominations each this year are four films: Thank You For Banking With US; Everybody Loves Touda; Ghost Trail and Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo. Following close behind them, with four nominations, is: AÏCHA.

Several other films also had multiple nominations including: The Village Next To Paradise; To A Land Unknown; Voy! Voy! Voy! and Norah.

This year’s winners will be revealed during a ceremony held on May 17th as part of the Cannes Film Festival. The event is organized in collaboration with Mad Solutions and the International Emerging Film Talent Association (Iefta), and attendance is by invitation only.

The Critics Awards for Arab Films have become a prestigious and anticipated highlight of the festival calendar.

Thank You For Banking With Us, Everybody Loves Touda, Ghost Trail and Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo lead the nominations for the 9th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will take place during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

All four features have received five nominations apiece for the awards, which spotlight Arab films that premiered outside the Arab world in 2024.

Mehdi Barsaoui’s Aïcha follows closely behind with four nods. Several other films also had multiple nominations including: The Village Next To Paradise, To A Land Unknown, Voy! Voy! Voy! and Norah.

Some 281 jury members from 75 countries will vote on the nominees,...

The Arab Cinema Center (Acc) has announced the nominations for the 9th Critics Awards for Arab Films, the ceremony which will take place on the fringes of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Four films are in the lead, making it into five categories each: Laila Abbas’ Thank You For Banking With Us (Palestine), Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco); Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail (Tunisia) and Khaled Mansour’s Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo (Egypt)

Mehdi Barsaoui’s Aïcha (Tunisia) follows with four nominations. Other films in the running include Mo Harawe’s The Village Next To Paradise (Somalia) Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown (Palestine); Omar Hilal’s Voy! Voy! Voy! (Egypt) and Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah (Saudi Arabia)

This year’s winners will be revealed during a ceremony on May 17 in Cannes. The event is organized by the Acc in collaboration with Mad Solutions and...

“Norah” is a landmark in the new wave of Saudi cinema, which began around 2021 with the launch of the Red Sea International Film Festival. Apart from being the first Saudi movie to be shot entirely in AlUla, it was also the first Saudi film selected for the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard competition, where it received a special mention.

The story takes place in a remote village in 1990s Saudi Arabia. The local leader, Abu Saleh, invites a teacher from the city, Nader, to teach the village children how to read and write. Education in the area is essentially non-existent, with fathers keeping their children close to tend herds and neglecting their schooling. Since Nader is not there to teach the Quran, but secular subjects, he is met with suspicion, though he is eventually allowed to teach an all-boys class.

At the same time, Norah,...

Metropolis Association proudly announces the launch of South Screens (Ecrans du Sud) , a new film festival where cinema transcends borders, where voices travel across continents, where the unseen finds its place on our screens, celebrating countries whose films are rarely presented on our screens.

Under the theme of “Shift”, this first edition reflects our need for new perspectives. Facing dark times, drastic political changes, extreme violence, impunity, injustice, we hope to search for answers, outside familiar pathways.

This is not a festival of competition, but of exchange. A gathering where films move freely between places and identities, where cinema creates moments of discovery and discussions. This first edition is an organic extension to existing programs such as “Ecrans du réel” (Real Screens – dedicated to documentaries) and upcoming ones spread throughout the year, reflecting the same interest in social causes that matter to us.

The program runs for ten days and...

Horror fans, get ready—indie genre titans Black Forest Films and Black Mandala have unveiled a thrilling slate of upcoming projects, headlined by the audacious new feature Grand Finale: A New York Odyssey. The film, described as Dressed to Kill meets Maniac, stars drag sensation Love Connie in a bold, genre-defying performance that promises to blend horror, surrealism, and New York City grit.

Touted as a “fever dream of horror, performance, and mayhem,” Grand Finale explores the darker undercurrents of the city that never sleeps through the lens of a provocative and unpredictable narrative. Production is set to begin this November.

Joining the cast is an ensemble of cult-favorite talent, including Ezra Buzzington, Peter Stickles, Debbie Rochon, Nora Burns, and Galen Howard.

With its mix of horror royalty, underground icons, and boundary-pushing style, Grand Finale: A New York Odyssey is already shaping up to be a must-watch for fans of transgressive cinema.

Shifting Gears has aired its series premiere, and the cast is filled with familiar faces. ABC’s newest sitcom marks Tim Allen’s return to network television, but many supporting characters are played by actors who have worked with Allen before. Others have experience with co-star Kat Dennings in her varied projects, while a select few are breaking into the world of sitcoms with Shifting Gears. The basic story of Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears follows an estranged father (Allen’s Matt) and daughter (Dennings’ Riley) who reconnect when the daughter moves home with her two children amidst a divorce.

While the pilot episode of Shifting Gears earned negative reviews, the show’s impressive array of actors garnered a sizable following. The classic sitcom format of Shifting Gears leaves the door open for endless additional guest stars and cameos as the series progresses, but the main and recurring cast is already filled with heavy hitters.

Mbc Studios, the production arm of Middle East broadcaster Mbc Group, is to adapt leading Saudi author Osamah Almuslim’s horror novel Travellers’ Hell (Jahim Al-Abirin) into a feature film.

Rising Saudi filmmaker Hana Al-Omair is set to direct Traveller’s Hell, which is set to begin production in the first half of 2025 in the Kingdom. Almuslim will adapt the screenplay.

Travellers’ Hell is the story of young woman who picks up a stranded motorist on a mountain road. But her act of kindness soon spirals into a nightmare.

Al-Omair joined Mbc Studios earlier this year as creative director. She...

Norah star Yaqoub Alfarhan and Adwa Bader are to lead the cast of historical drama Dancing On Fire, directed by Saudi filmmaker Hana Al-Omair.

Based on bestselling Saudi novel Divers Of The Desert by Amal Al-Faran, the screenplay is co-written by Al-Omair and Soha Samir. It is produced by Transit Films International, an Egyptian production company now based in Amsterdam, whose award-winning credits include Amjad Abu Alala’s You Will Die At Twenty and Hala Elkoussy’s Cactus Flower.

Samir is also producer of the project and is at the Red Sea Souk - the industry platform that runs alongside...

Long-time collaborators Cairo-based Film Clinic and Dubai-based Front Row Productions are joining forces with Saudi Arabian companies Arabia Pictures Group and Rotana Studios to produce local rom-com A Matter of Life and Death.

The Jeddah-shot feature will revolve around the romance between two unconventional characters: Hayat, a superstitious young woman who is convinced she’s cursed, and Yousef, a shy heart surgeon dealing with a bafflingly slow heartbeat. Their fates collide as she is wishing for an end, while he is wrestling with even darker thoughts.

The feature will be directed by Anas Ba-Tahaf, whose 2021 drama Fay’s Palette, about a girl cloistered in her home by a controlling brother, was one of the first Saudi features to be made following the lifting of the country’s 35-year cinema ban in 2017.

Writer and actor Sarah Taibah, who took co-writing credits on Saudi fantasy drama Hwjn, is lead writer. She and...

Screen International has named the five actors and filmmakers selected for Arab Stars of Tomorrow 2024, the eighth edition of the new talent programme for emerging Middle East and North Africa talents.

This year’s line-up includes Moroccan actress Oumaima Barid; Saudi actress Maria Bahrawi; Yemeni producer Mohsen Alkhalfi; Egyptian actor Essam Omar; and Jordanian writer-director Zain Duraie.

Arab Stars of Tomorrow celebrates Arab talent from across the Mena region and highlights the hottest up-and-coming actors, writers and directors who are primed to make their mark in the international industry.

Click on the links below to read the profiles of this year’s stars.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival kicked off its fourth edition on Thursday with the world premiere of Karim Shenawi’s Egyptian drama “The Tale of Daye’s Family” and a glitzy red carpet featuring Will Smith, Emily Blunt, Cynthia Erivo, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eva Longoria, Michelle Yeoh, Minnie Driver, Michael Douglas and Vin Diesel, the latter of whom received the festival’s Iconic Characters Award.

Diesel took to the stage after a warm introduction by his long-time collaborator Michelle Rodríguez, who said the two have “been creatively in rooms defending storytelling, people with our colored skin and the beauty of the streets and the people who don’t necessarily live by the rules of others.”

Michelle Rodriguez, Mohammed Al Turki and Eva Longoria attend the opening ceremony at the Red Sea Film Festival.

Accepting the award, the actor quipped about the star-filled room: “There might be more familiar faces...

Turkish-British writer Elif Shafak’s Booker Prize-nominated novel “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World,” which is set in the world of Istanbul sex workers, will be adapted into a feature film by Madrid-based Isb Films and Turkey’s Limon Film.

Shafak, who is Turkey’s most widely read female author, is known for her vast body of work spanning a dozen novels that have been translated into 50 languages. They often delve into themes of human rights, freedom of expression and identity. “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World” is the first of her novels to be adapted into a feature film.

More than a decade ago, she moved from Turkey to the U.K. after her book “The Bastard of Istanbul” – which touches on the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire – led her to be tried for “insulting Turkishness,” for which she was eventually acquitted.

Saudi Arabia in September launched a $100 million film fund aimed at attracting investments from global film studios to help fuel the kingdom’s rapidly growing local film industry, whose recent successes include “Norah,” selected for the Cannes Film Festival this year.

The Saudi Film Fund – as the fund is known – sees Saudi’s Cultural Development Fund making a 40% investment in collaboration with investment bank Mefic Capital and specialized holding company Roaa Media Ventures, which is its technical partner.

The fund is being announced just as the Saudi Film Commission launches the second edition of the Saudi Film Confex confab in Ryadh where roughly 130 local, regional and international industry execs specialized in production, exhibition and studio construction, will be gathering Oct. 9-12.

Ahead of Saudi Film Confex, Variety spoke with Rma Ventures chairman Redha Alhaidar, who noted that since the kingdom lifted its religion-related ban on cinemas in 2018 and started setting...

Zaid Shaker is excited about what lies ahead. The new Acting Executive Director of Film AlUla, who takes over the role from Charlene Deleon-Jones in an interim capacity, is stepping in with the desire to build upon AlUla’s ambition to become a major global hub for film production and creative industries in Northwest Arabia.

“We are on the cusp of some major deals for projects and in discussions with studios and productions on their upcoming plans that we’ll be announcing in due course,” Shaker told Variety when asked about what can be expected of his tenure in the position.

Zaid Shaker

“We’re also going to continue supporting film through our initiatives, which include a strategic partnership with the Red Sea Film Fund to jointly provide grants, offering filmmakers from the Mena region with financial production support and the opportunity to complete a portion of filming in AlUla.

In the four years since first being established in early 2020 by the Royal Commission for AlUla (Rcu), Film AlUla has quickly positioned itself as one of the fastest-rising film destinations in the Middle East. The film agency is mandated to promote and support international, regional, and local film and TV production whilst protecting and safeguarding AlUla, a region of outstanding natural and cultural significance in Saudi Arabia.

Aware of how local talent development and growing trained crews in Saudi is vital to their ambitions of becoming a global media hub, Film AlUla has established partnerships with initiatives like the Red Sea International Film Festival’s Red Sea Lodge. As one of the talent development program’s sponsors AlUla, helped fund creative retreats and trips to film sets for filmmakers participating in the Lodge, where they had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience on projects like Johnny Depp’s upcoming directorial effort “Modi,...

Tawfik Alzaidi’s debut feature Norah, from 2022, tells a moving story about the human need for creative expression. The film is set in a remote Saudi Arabian village in the 1990s, when strict religious rules tightly controlled daily life. Most significantly, all forms of art were forbidden.

We meet Norah, a spirited teenage girl living with her aunt’s family after losing her parents. Stifled by the village’s oppressive social norms, she finds ways to glimpse distant worlds through magazines smuggled in. Norah dreams of a life beyond the desert community’s confining borders.

Things change with the arrival of Nader, a teacher assigned to educate the local boys. A former artist, he rekindles his own passion through helping eager students learn. Norah is especially inspired by Nader and does everything she can to experience the magic of creation for herself, despite facing disapproval from conservative elders.

Alzaidi’s...

Saudi producer Mohammed Al-Turki is stepping down as CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation, the parent organization of Saudi’s top fest, which is the leading market in the region and a key driver in the kingdom’s ongoing efforts to build a film and TV industry.

Al-Turki, who remains on board as an adviser, will return to focusing on “personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman,” a Red Sea foundation statement said.

While the selection of his successor is underway, Mohammed Asseri, who is a former Red Sea Film Foundation board member, will step in during the interim as the foundation’s acting CEO.

Last month, Saudi Arabia landed its first movie in Cannes Film Festival’s official selection with “Norah,” a drama by pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi set in 1990s Saudi, when conservatism was at its height. The film premiered...

Mohammed Al-Turki, the CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation, is stepping down with board member Mohammed Asseri appointed as acting CEO.

Al-Turki plans to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman, and will continue to support the Red Sea Film Foundation leadership team as an advisor.

The Foundation runs the Red Sea International Film Festival and its funding programmes have supported over 250 projects from Saudi, Mena and Africa and Asia.

The selection of a successor is underway.

Al-Turki’s departure comes after four titles supported by the Red Sea Film Foundation recently played at Cannes.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation has announced that Mohammed Al-Turki is stepping down as its CEO to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman.

The body, which was created in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s lifting in late 2017 of its cinema ban, oversees the Jeddah-set Red Sea International Film Festival and is also charged with helping to build a cinema ecosystem in the country.

Under Al Turki’s watch, the foundation held the first three editions of the Rsiff and supported 250 projects from Saudi, Mena and Africa and Asia.

The foundation said the search for a successor was underway and that in the interim, former Red Sea Film Foundation board member Mohammed Asseri was stepping in as acting CEO.

Shivani Pandya Malhotra remains in place as managing director of the foundation and Al-Turki will continue to support the leadership team in an advisory role.

The Red Sea Film Foundation, which organizes the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, unveiled a leadership update on Wednesday, including the transition of Mohammed Al Turki from his CEO post to an advisor role.

“Al Turki will continue to support the leadership team while he returns to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman,” it said. “The selection of a successor is underway and in the interim, former board member of the Red Sea Film Foundation Mohammed Asseri will step in as acting CEO of the foundation.”

The Red Sea Film Foundation recently had a landmark Cannes Film Festival which saw four titles supported by the organization selected for the festival. This included Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, which had its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December and made history as the first Saudi film to...

The first Saudi Arabian film ever selected for Cannes, the tender rural drama “Norah” is writer-director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature film. The story of a schoolteacher tasked with introducing literacy to an isolated village and his unlikely relationship with a precocious young girl, the movie suffers from a few early-career filmmaking tics, which prevent all its pieces from all neatly fitting together. However, it’s also underscored by the kind of optimism and poetry about art that one often finds in novice works from directors destined to make more polished and accomplished films (if perhaps more cynical ones). Alzaidi has that potential in spades, as “Norah” is a self-reflexive testament to the deep and profound need for artistic expression.

Set in 1996, years before cinema and other art forms were reintroduced to the Saudi mainstream, the film follows orphaned teenager Norah (Maria Bahrawi), who lives with her aunt’s family...

Self-taught Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi posted a Tweet in 2011 predicting that cinemas would re-open in his country in 2018 after a 35-year ban.

It got zero traction.

“I was sitting in Starbucks, feeling frustrated and fired it off,” he recounts. “No-one replied or retweeted it.”

In late 2017, he would log on to discover the post had gone viral with people hailing him as a fortune teller, following the Saudi government’s announcement of the lifting of the cinema ban as part of a wider opening-up of the country under its 2030 plan aimed at moving the economy away from a reliance on oil.

Seven years later, Alzaidi is making history as his debut feature Norah world premieres in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard as the first Saudi movie to make it into Official Selection across its 77 editions.

Set in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s, when all artistic expression was banned,...

When asked to name her organization’s biggest accomplishment so far, Charlene Deleon-Jones, the executive director for Film AlUla, doesn’t hesitate to name-check Norah, the first Saudi film to crack the Cannes lineup. The Tawfik Alzaidi-helmed indie movie, which will compete in the fest’s Un Certain Regard section, was shot in AlUla, the country’s 200,000-year-old “living museum” and first Unesco World Heritage Site, with a crew that was 40 percent Saudi and includes an all-Saudi cast. The latter includes teenager Maria Bahrawi in her debut role as the titular Norah, an orphaned girl who develops a nurturing bond with Nader, an artist and new teacher in her village, played by Saudi actor Yagoub Alfarhan. “That they were able to get to this stage is really impressive,” Deleon-Jones says. “Often, people can be very focused on what is seen as their ‘international piece,’ but what I love is how beautiful Norah is,...

Exclusive: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

The film will make history as the first ever Saudi feature to play in Cannes’ Official Selection just six years after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its 35-year cinema ban.

“Norah is an elegant film that combines age-old traditions with a desire for emancipation. This emancipation is achieved through art, learning and a desire greater than oneself. Tawfik Akzaidi has beautifully crafted a film that is both powerful and delicate,” said Nour Films’s co-founding director Patrick Sibourd.

The deal was brokered by Sebastien Chesneau under his Cercamon banner which clinched the international sales mandate for the film last week.

Cercamon and Nour previously collaborated on Vietnamese drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight...

Exclusive: Cercamon has acquired international sales rights for Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

Norah will make history in May as the first ever Saudi feature to play in Cannes’ Official Selection. The achievement comes six years after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its 35-year cinema ban and is a sign of the bubbling cinema scene that has sprung up since.

Set in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s when artistic expression was banned, the feature follows rookie teacher and clandestine artist Nader, who is sent to a remote village for his first post where he connects with a young woman, whose life has been stifled by the era of conservatism.

She ignites the creativity inside him and inspires him to paint again. At great risk, they develop a delicate connection and a quiet bond.

Saudi director and producer Osama Alkhurayji’s debut feature film “Siwar” recently wrapped principal photography in AlUla, the swathe of northwest Saudi Arabia comprising ancient artifacts, a lush oasis and sandstone canyons that’s becoming a burgeoning local film production hub.

“Siwar” involves two families – one Turkish, the other Saudi – whose fates become entangled due to a revelation about their newborns. In the film, AlUla stands in for Najran, the city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemen border. The drama delves into the dynamics of how the lives of Yaner, a Turkish father played by Serkan Genç (“The Game-Hiyleger Axmaqlar”), and Hamad, a Saudi father played by Fhaid Bin Mohammed, intersect after their sons are swapped at birth.

“Siwar” is the latest Saudi film to shoot in AlUla, following Netflix drama “The Matchmaker” and Saudi auteur Tawfik Alzaidi’s debut feature “Norah” that – after premiering locally in December at...

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 17 April 2024 – The Cannes Film Festival announced that the Saudi film “Norah,” supported by the Saudi Film Commission through its ‘Daou’ initiative, has been selected as part of the festival’s Official Selection in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section. The festival will take place in Cannes, France, from May 14 to 25.

Written and directed by Tawfiq Al-Zaidi, the feature film “Norah” clinched the top prize of a funding award from the Saudi Film Commission’s Daou Film Competition, an initiative launched by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture in September 2019 to bolster Saudi film production and nurture the next generation of filmmakers. The film also garnered support from the Quality of Life program, one of the Kingdom’s Vision 2023 initiatives, Film AlUla, Generation 2030, and the Red Sea Film Festival, where it premiered in December 2023.

Set in a remote village in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s and filmed in AlUla,...

Saudi Arabia has landed its first film in the Cannes Film Festival official selection with “Norah,” a drama by pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi set in 1990s Saudi, when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons.

“Norah,” which premiered locally in December at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, will be launching internationally from Cannes’ prestigious Un Certain Regard section, marking the first Saudi film to screen in Cannes and becoming a symbol of the kingdom’s rapidly growing moviemaking ambitions since Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinema in 2017.

The film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi, is an illiterate orphaned young woman who lives in a remote village where she faces an arranged marriage in which she will be trapped and has a need for self expression. She intersects with an artist named Nader,...

Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, Anora, the latest from The Florida Project and Red Rocket director Sean Baker, and Andrea Arnold’s Bird, starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, are among the highlights of this year’s Cannes Film Festival competition.

Abbasi, the Iran-born, Sweden-based director, whose Holy Spider was a sensation of the 2022 Cannes festival, returns with his story of how a young Donald Trump and the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn built up Trump’s real estate business in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Succession‘s Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) is wife Ivana.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things follow-up Kinds of Kindness will also premiere in the Cannes competition. The film, featuring the Oscar-winning Poor Things star Emma Stone, will be high on every Cannes attendee’s must-see list. The Greek auteur has again...

Norah Jones has returned to announce her ninth studio album, Visions, out March 8th. She’s also mapped out a brief East Coast tour and shared the album’s lead single, “Running.” Stream it below.

Visions serves as Jones’ first album since 2020’s Pick Me Up Off the Floor, and is described in a statement as being about “feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings.” Produced by Leon Michels, Visions features a more uplifting and soulful sound than her previous record.

“The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep, and ‘Running’ was one of them where you’re half asleep and kind of jolted awake,” Jones said in a press release. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I...

Production has now started on “AlGaid,” the latest feature from fast-rising Saudi Arabian production house Telfaz11, which smashed local box office records with their first two local releases, “Sattar” and “Mandoob.”

Directed by Hussam Alhulwah and shooting in the sprawling production hub of Neom, “AlGaid” unfolds against the backdrop of the early 20th-century Arabia desert and is described as blending the revenge genre with Bedouin soap opera tropes. The film was penned by Saudi novelist and writer Ahmed Alhokail.

Among the newly-announced ensemble cast for the feature is renowned actor Yagoub Alfarhan, recently seen in the Red Sea Film Festival-winning film “Norah” but best known for the mini-series “Rashash.” Joining Alfarhan is Saad Alshatti and Khalid Abdulaziz (“Head to Head”), plus Husam AlHarthi (“The Matchmaker”) Asem Alawad (“Raven Song”), Ayman Mutahar (“Rashash”) and Fahad Bin Salem (“Mandoob”).

AlGaid

Behind the camera are director of photography Son Doan (“Sofia”), production designer...

At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn.

The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”

The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...

Zarrar Khan’s In Flames has picked up the Yusr Award for best competition film at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.

Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.

The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.

Rising Saudi Arabian star Yaqoub Alfarhan, who is known for playing the titular drug trafficker and serial killer in hit Mbc TV series “Rashash,” plays a very different role in the drama “Norah” by pioneering Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, which is set in 1990s Saudi Arabia when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons.

In “Norah,” which world premiered at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Alfarhan plays an artist named Nader who has given up painting and moved to a remote village to be a schoolteacher. There he intersects with this film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi. “Norah” is an illiterate orphaned young woman who faces an arranged marriage in which she will be trapped and has a need for self expression. Their chaste encounter unleashes in “Norah” a passion for art and, by extension,...

Saudi Arabia Launches First Cinema Guild Six Year After Lifting Of Ban

Saudi Arabia has launched its first official film industry guild six years after the lifting of its 35-year cinema ban in 2017. The initiative overseen by Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al-Saud, was announced during the Red Sea International Film Festival. “Having a professional association is fundamental for the development of the sector,” inaugural board member and director Hana Al Omair told a conference discussing the objectives of the new body. She said the association’s key role would be to establish legislation for the sector as well as labor rights for cinema professionals. Al Omair was joined in the discussion by the association’s president, the artist and producer Mishal Al Mutairi; veteran acting star Abdulmohsen Al-Nimr; director Tawfik Alzaidi, whose first feature Norah world premiered at the festival on Tuesday evening as well as Alaa Faden,...

Dubai-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region distribution rights to groundbreaking Saudi drama “Norah,” which world premiered in competition at the Red Sea Film Festival.

Directed by pioneering Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, making his feature film debut, “Norah” is set in 1990s Saudi Arabia, when conservatism was at its height and all forms of art and painting were banned for religion-related reasons.

The film’s titular character, played by Saudi newcomer Maria Bahrawi, is an illiterate orphaned young woman who lives in a remote village where she faces an arranged marriage in which she will be trapped and has a need for self expression. She intersects with an artist named Nader, played by Saudi star Yaqoub Alfarhan (“Rashash”), who has given up painting and moved to the village to be a schoolteacher. This chaste encounter unleashes in “Norah” a passion for art and,...

Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning filmmakers have formed a trade organisation called Film Association in an effort to hold sway in regulations being laid out for the country’s booming film industry.

The Saudi Film Association, announced during the ongoing Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, comes five years after the government removed its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinemas. Since then, Saudi Arabia has built studios, formed film commissions and launched tax incentives for production.

The Saudi Film Association initiative is being led by Saudi Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, who is known to be a film buff.

Presiding over the trade organization is prominent Saudi actor Mishal Al Mutairi, known for his roles in the TV series “Yawmeyat Wadah” (“Wadah’s Diaries”) and “Al Aramela” (“The Widows”). Board members include producer Alaa Faden, founding member and the CEO of leading indie studio Telfaz 11...

International execs note the quality of projects on offer and growth potential of Saudi industry

A significant number of international executives have beaten a path to the Red Sea International Film Festival’s market over the past week to explore opportunities in the rapidly growing Saudi film market.

The Souk took place for four busy days from December 2-5. All the major Saudi players were on the ground, firming up its reputation as the place to learn about the local industry and to strike up relationships.

Red Sea managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra said industry accreditation was up by 10% on last year,...

Former Universal Pictures executive Paul Chesney has been out and about this past week at the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, running November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.

The film and TV industry veteran, whose last position was at Universal Pictures as EVP Global Operations out of L.A., is attending in his new role as CEO of Riyadh-based production company Red Palm Pictures and sister acquisition and distribution outfit TwentyOne Entertainment.

Both entities were unveiled on the eve of the festival, with Red Palm Pictures announcing that it was kicking off its production slate with a four-picture deal with Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, whose first feature Norah world premieres in Jeddah this evening.

Red Palm Pictures and TwentyOne Entertainment are among a raft of companies being launched in Saudi Arabia as the country’s ambitions to become a major film...

The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff) has announced details of this year's selection of films from Saudi Arabia, alongside the Arab Spectacular and Red Sea: Competition features strands. Collectively, these strands will showcase the rich and varied work by established and new filmmakers from the region, including documentaries and titles produced by the Red Sea Film Foundation.

The third edition of the Rsiff – running from 30 November to 9 December – providesa unique and powerful platform for celebrating film, connecting cultures, and expanding horizons while welcoming stories from all walks of life. It is a comprehensive cinematic platform that promotes diversity in all facets of filmmaking, elevating it beyond just a film screening event. These ideas of diversity, connection, and cultural exchange are manifested in this year's theme; “Your Story, Your Festival”.

While celebrating cinema on a global scale, Red Sea Iff throws a spotlight on films made in the...

First acquisition is Red Sea competition title ’Norah’ by Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi

New Riyadh-based distributor TwentyOne Entertainment is gearing up for launch at the upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival.

The first feature on the TwentyOne Entertainment slate is Norah, from Saudi writer-director Tawfik Alzaidi, which plays in main competition at Red Sea.

Paul Chesney has been named as the CEO of TwentyOne Entertainment, which is owned by a private Saudi investor. Chesney is a former EVP of global operations at Universal Pictures who has also management roles at Disney, Warner Bros. and Arts Alliance Media as well as...

TwentyOne Entertainment, a new acquisition and distribution company based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, unveiled its formation on Tuesday, saying it will make its official debut at the upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah. The Saudi fest, running Nov. 30-Dec. 9, will feature Norah, the first movie on the company’s slate, in its competition lineup, as unveiled on Monday.

“Our goal is to consistently deliver a high-quality cinematic entertainment experience and be an innovative leader in this fast-developing market,” said TwentyOne Entertainment CEO Paul Chesney, who previously held senior management roles at the likes of Universal and Disney, as well as technology start-ups. “We look forward to building strong partnerships throughout the region and around the

world.”

Norah, from Saudi writer-director Tawfik Alzaidi, is set in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and is the first Saudi feature film to shoot entirely in the country’s AlUla region. Described as...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced the bulk of its lineup from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), signaling that the event is forging ahead with its third edition despite the Israel-Hamas war that has caused cancellations of several movie celebrations across the Arab world.

The fest’s third edition, set to run Nov. 30-Dec. 9 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore, will feature a slew of films from the Mena region and comprise 11 feature films from Saudi, underlining the local film industry’s growth. This year’s theme is “Your Story, Your Festival”.

There are two Saudi films in the 17-title competition dedicated to features from the Arab world as well as Africa and Asia. They are “Norah,” a drama by first-time helmer Tawfik Alzaidi set in 1990s Saudi Arabia, when conservatism was at its height, and Ali Alkalthami’s bold comedy “Mandoob...

The Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled its selection of 36 movies from Saudi Arabia, as well as its Arab Spectacular and Red Sea: Competition lineups for this year’s third edition.

“Collectively, these strands will showcase the rich and varied work by established and new filmmakers from the region, including documentaries and titles produced by the Red Sea Film Foundation,” organizers said on Monday.

The program will put a spotlight on films made in the Middle East and North Africa region, featuring 36 feature-length and short films from Saudi Arabia. “The lineup includes internationally recognized talent plus new voices; from Maïwenn’s historical romance Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp which opened at Cannes with support from the Red Sea International Film Financing arm, to Kaouther Ben Hania with Four Daughters, nominated as Tunisia’s submission for international feature at the forthcoming Academy Awards,” the festival said. “Further directors selected...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled it 2023 line-up and theme as it maintains its third edition against the backdrop of the escalating Israel-Gaza Conflict. (scroll down for full list)

The edition, running from November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah, will unfold under the theme of “Your Story, Your Festival”.

Among the key sections announced on Monday was the Red Sea International Film Festival: In Competition section which will showcase 17 narrative and documentary features from Asia, Africa, and the Arab world.

Contenders include UK-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi critically-acclaimed West Bank-set first feature The Teacher, Tunisian-Moroccan filmmaking couple Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane’s Atlas Mountains-set, theatre troupe road movie Backstage, Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, which is billed as the first Saudi feature shot in the country’s growing location hub of AlUla, and Iranian director Parviz Shahbazi’s drama Roxana, for which its...

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...