Latest in Red Sea Film Festival

Post-pandemic audiences are much more open to different cultures, thanks to streaming and exposure to new types of content, but some of the world's biggest film industries are still figuring out how to adapt in a rapidly changing landscape, said speakers on the 'Cinematic Crossovers' panel in Red Sea…

One of the buzziest local titles here at the Red Sea Film Festival is the historical drama Norah, starring rising actor Yagoub Alfarhan (Rashash).  Written and directed by Saudi filmmaker Tawfik Alzaidi, the pic marks the first entirely local production to shoot in the Kingdom's historic city of…

Muvi Cinemas' Adon Quinn stepped into Deadline's Red Sea Studio in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to talk about how rapidly the country's exhibition sector is growing and what is driving the burgeoning sector into cinemas.  Quinn noted that Muvi opened its first location in Jeddah in August 2019 and now has…

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…

A few years ago, Kim Chang-Hoon was working in a motel and dreaming up the story for his first film as a director – a profession he had wanted to enter ever since he was eight or nine years old.  "I started off by thinking about how the violent behavior of adults can affect a person when they're…

Dubai-based Front Row Productions has come on board Jordanian director and producer Zaid Abu Hamdan's second feature Boomah about a female street thug. The company, a joint venture between MENA distributors Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment, is joining forces with Bounce…

There's perhaps no better representative of the trajectory of the many artists taking position at the front of Saudi Arabia's nascent film industry than filmmaker Hakeem Jomah.  "Academically, I'm a medical doctor, but once the art scene started to boom here in Saudi Arabia, I decided I wanted to…

Rising Riyadh-based content company Telfaz11 is enjoying a banner year thanks to freestyle wrestling comedy Sattar, which had a record-breaking run in Saudi cinemas to become one of the highest grossing films in the territory ever. The company is at the third Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah with two…

MBC Studios is developing a series adaptation of popular Saudi writer Osamah Almuslim's best-selling debut horror novel Khawf (Fear). It is the second work by Almuslim to be adapted by the high-end production arm of Riyadh-based media giant MBC Group, after his fantasy Rise Of The Witches about two…

Since premiering in this year's Cannes Critics Week, Amjad Al Rasheed's debut feature Inshallah A Boy has been travelling constantly on the festival circuit and was also selected as Jordan's official submission to the Oscars. The film is receiving its Arab world premiere here in competition at Red Sea…

The Aussies took over Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Film Festival this evening as Elvis filmmaker Baz Luhrmann sat down for a career Q&A with actor Chris Hemsworth.  "We're a couple of Aussies telling Aussie stories," Luhrmann described their chat, which was shaped around their experiences working in their…

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival is midway through its third edition, running November 30 to December 9 in the palatial surroundings of the seafront Ritz Carlton in the port city of Jeddah. This year’s edition came together against the backdrop of the geopolitical tensions linked to…