Arab More Opens, Red Sea International Film Festival Held To Honor Female Director

Red Sea International Film Festival

JAKARTA - The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) opens a new chapter for Saudi Arabia. The RSIFF held the red carpet and the opening of the inaugural edition of the event on Monday, December 6, local time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The festival was first announced in 2019 and was originally scheduled to launch in March 2020 but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic even though most of the RSIFF programs were already running. The event also comes after the Middle Eastern country lifted a ban on opening cinemas in 2018.

The new policy comes after a number of reforms carried out by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017. "This is a historic day in the kingdom," festival director Mohammed Al Turki told AFP, quoted Tuesday.

The opening of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) was attended by Saudi Arabian celebrities and will be held over the next 10 days.

The festival will feature 138 feature-length and short films from 67 countries in more than 30 languages, including director Bassel Ghandour's “The Alleys” as well as non-Arabic films such as US Joe Wright's “Cyrano” and Kabir's “83”. Khan from India.

The festival is also held to honor the first female Saudi director Haifaa al-Mansour who made the film “Wadjda” (2012) and won several international awards for her work.

"This is a turning point, but we still want more," Saudi actress Elham Ali told AFP while attending the red carpet at the film festival.

Meanwhile, Saudi director Ahmed Al-Mulla said the film industry had been guerrilla and underground before opening cinemas again in 2018.

“There is no ability to film or get financing. It all depends on individual efforts," said the director, who has organized the annual Saudi Film Festival in the eastern city of Dammam since 2008.

According to Al-Mulla, the world of film and cinema also holds “soft power” that can pave the way for the successful social and economic changes that are taking place in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"Cinema is not just an art but needs to be transformed into a culture in Saudi Arabia," he said as quoted by ANTARA.

The Red Sea International Film Festival also targets the growing film industry to shoot and watch films in Saudi Arabia.

A report by the multinational accounting firm PwC estimates Saudi Arabia's annual box office could reach $950 million by 2030. It is estimated that Saudi Arabia's 40 million population could absorb the growth of the big screen industry of up to 2,600 cinemas.