Jeddah, the new home of film | Political Economy

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024 saw Saudi Arabia as the “new home of film” as leading film professionals from around the world gathered in Jeddah in early December for the Red Sea International Film Festival, the country’s largest film event now in its fifth year. entering the year.

It was an extravagantly staged, mega-budgeted, 9-day affair, with not only the traditional film screenings and star-studded red carpets, but, perhaps more significantly, putting on a spectacular show. There was a glimpse of the exhibitors. They named it the Red Sea Souk (Souk is Arabic for market).

Based on a massive ‘pop-up’, Sook has partnered with global film production and distribution groups such as MBC, VOX, MAD Solutions, Big Bang Studios, T-VFX MENA, India’s NFDC, Qatar’s Katara Studios, Hong Kong’s Ceylon Films. Collected. Jordan’s The Imaginarium Films and Egyptian Media Production City — all under one roof. Other notable stalls included Turkey Pavilion, New York Film Academy, Shanghai Longshe Culture Media Company, Film Alola and Saudi Film Commission.

Every day, the film market is full of activity and energy. Along with this, Civic Forum has hosted workshops and masterclasses with key personalities like Spike Lee, Shekhar Kapur, Dev Patel and Aamir Khan. The aim was to invite foreign filmmakers and companies to tap into Saudi talent and explore the country’s rapidly growing film industry. At the end of the festival, Red Sea successfully established a number of creative partnerships.

There was plenty for budding filmmakers. Be Filming with a Smartphone, a two-day workshop led by Paris-based half-French, half-Algerian screenwriter and director Yassin Lassar Ramadani. Or Disney animation veteran Travis Blaise’s masterclass, titled Building Memorable Characters: Crafting Stories That Resonate , in which he teaches audiences about “creating unique voices and meaningful backstories for your characters. I gained useful insights that bring your stories to life.”

Elsewhere, Project Market will talk about the ongoing work of the Red Sea Fund. The cherry on top were the Civic Connections and Civic Socials, a rare opportunity for all badge holders and guests to mingle and network.

This year, the Red Sea International Film Festival was moved from the palatial Ritz Hotel above Jeddah to a triple-venue setup in the port city’s historic Al-Balad neighborhood. And Sook was only a part of it.

Al-Balad’s restored old houses, with their wooden lattice windows and use of coral, hosted intimate media junkets and roundtables. Within walking distance was the grand Culture Square with its auditorium and cineplex showing the best feature films, documentaries and shorts.

More than 120 films from 50 countries were screened in the festival. These included 10 world premieres. Many of these films were international collaborations of the Red Sea Film Foundation. However, the contestants were from Asia, Africa and the MENA region.

The feature jury itself was quite ‘global’: chaired by Lee, the jury included Turkish actress Toba Buxton, British-American actress Minnie Driver, Korean-American actor Daniel D. Kim; and Egyptian-Austrian writer and director Abu Bakr Shawky.

Between these venues was the Festival Garden with its food stalls and seating areas and a beautiful sea view. Evenings in the garden became melodious, as musical performances continued late into the night.

or the public, the most anticipated events of the festival were clearly the red carpet laid out on the beautifully lit front lawn of Culture Square, with heavy doses of glamor served up in its designated fan zone. As the celebrities walked down the carpet, they delighted their fans as well as the media with shouts and selfies.

Sessions with Bollywood and Hollywood royalty, notably Kareena Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Michael Douglas, Andrew Garfield, Sarah Jessica Parker and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, were also massive crowd pullers.

Most of the events were ticketed. Ticket prices vary from event to event, depending on their popular appeal.

Towards the end of the festival, a session with India’s biggest crossover star Priyanka Chopra had the crowd on their feet. Later, at the closing ceremony, Chopra was honored with the Red Sea Icon Award. The Barfi and Quantico actor tied the knot with her husband, singer Nick Jonas.

Engin Ultan, the Turkish superstar who made a splash in Pakistan for his cult TV series, Direli: Arturool, also made a splash at the festival. She was joined by Nurgul Yelke, popularly known as Kusum Sultan, her co-star in the documentary series, Tales on the Banks of the Bosphorus, which premiered at the festival. A co-production of Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey, Tales… celebrates the global success of the Turkish TV drama, or “Daisy” as it is called in the local language. It also takes viewers behind the scenes of Turkey’s most beloved shows.

This year, compared to previous editions of RSIFF, there were fewer entries from India. Among them, Superboys of Malegaon, featuring Farhan Akhtar and Reema Kagati, grabbed attention for a delightful adaptation of Faiza Khan’s award-winning 2008 documentary titled Superman of Malegaon.

Andrew Garfield’s Cry, We Live in Time; And Johnny Depp directorial Moodi, 3 Days on the Wings of Madness were some of the other major red carpet premieres. Modi…, a haunting drama based on the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani in 1916 Paris, brought the festival to a screeching close.

Earlier, Karim Shinawi’s The Tale of Daye’s Family opened the festival with a bang. Critics praised the young Saudi filmmaker and called his feature a milestone in the history of the country’s fledgling cinema industry.

The Tale… was part of The Arab Spectacular, which showcased the best of Saudi cinema. Other titles in the segment include Lail Nahar, Hubal, Front Row; and Abdo and Sanya, an Egyptian-American silent film shot in black and white.

While the festival featured a number of international hits, it also produced some genre-defying features, thought-provoking documentaries and outstanding shorts – in and out of competition. Among them were Dreaming of Lions, a funny tragi-comedy from Portugal; and Yala Parkour, a poignant documentary by Areb Zawatir about a self-taught parkour athlete in war-torn Gaza who rises to become an international athlete, only to meet an unfortunate and untimely end.

Lumière, Le Cinema, a documentary by Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux that collects ‘films’ made by the famous Lumiere brothers in the early days of cinema when the camera — or, rather, the cinematograph — was a miracle, another festival. proved to be a favorite of .

Finally, Red Path, a Tunisian feature by Lutfi Achor that traces the journey “into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone,” won the Golden User for Best Feature Film. Achor also received the best director award. Jury head and Oscar-winning American filmmaker Spike Lee presented the trophy.

Silver User went to To A Land Unknown by Palestinian filmmaker Mehdi Flaifal. A French-German-British-Greek-Qatari-Saudi collaboration, the feature is about the plight of a Palestinian refugee in Athens.

State of Silence, Santiago Maza’s scathing critique of media censorship and “narco-politics” in Mexico, won Best Documentary East. Hatch, a Canadian-Iranian co-production, was named Golden User Best Short Film.

RSIFF ’24 also honored Viola Davis, Emily Blunt, Mona Zaki, Aamir Khan and Vin Diesel as “distinguished cinema personalities who have played a role in shaping the history of cinema as we know it today and It has been immortalized in the hearts of the people.”

RSIFF is an accreditation for film professionals from all over the world. For a country where cinema was banned for the longest time—until six years ago, to be exact—it brought up more than 600 screens within that short span, and the Red Sea Film Foundation, through its flagship initiatives such as That the Red Sea Fund, Souk, Labs and Festival, speaks volumes for Saudi Arabia’s growing profile as a film hub.

At barely five years old, the RSIFF is still quite young. Yet it has surprisingly become one of the most popular and prestigious film festivals in the world. As Jumna Al Rasheed, chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation, said on the awards night, “Over the past eight days, we have celebrated the transformative power of cinema and championed diverse narratives from around the world.”

The author is a staff member.