The Red Sea Film Foundation promotes African, Arab and Hollywood films

The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, which will be held in Jeddah from November 30 to December 9, will be the culmination of a very successful funding round for the Red Sea Film Foundation. Established in 2019 after the 30-year ban on cinema in Saudi Arabia was lifted, the Foundation aims to support the local and regional film industry by organizing and sponsoring the festival, in addition to focusing on education and grants.

In 2021, the Foundation launched the Red Sea Fund, a financing arm focused on supporting emerging filmmakers and established directors from the Arab world and Africa. Grants were distributed among projects in development, production and post-production. The fund supported 94 projects in the first year and more than 250 films in the following two years, including films by famous directors such as Abderrahmane Sissako, Haifa Al Mansour, and Kaouther Ben Hania.

The Fund’s impact was felt during the world’s biggest festivals in 2023, as projects supported by the Red Sea Fund made their way to Cannes, Toronto, Venice, Berlin and beyond. Not only was the crop abundant, but it was also wildly successful, taking a series of prizes throughout the season.

Among all the festivals, projects supported by the Red Sea Fund received the most awards on the French Riviera, with “Mother of All Lies” by Asma El-Demir, “Goodbye Julia” by Mohamed Kordofani, “Omen” by Baloji, and “The Hounds” For the perfection of blue. The film “Four Girls” by director Kawthar Ben Hania won the “Golden Eye” award for best documentary film in this year’s main competition.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before, and I think it will be more successful every year,” said Ryan Ashur, president of Red Sea Laboratories, the training arm of the Red Sea Foundation.

Many projects funded by the Red Sea Fund have completed their entire production cycle in Jeddah, from being selected to train at the Red Sea Inn, through to the Festival Market Centre, Red Sea Souq, receiving funding from the Foundation and graduating into the film festival programme. Key programming.

Zein Zidane, director of the Red Sea Market, is thrilled to have seen many of the films that participated in the market ultimately achieve success through the fund. “We are very happy to have such a fund and in such a short space of time. We have been able to support an incredible number of films. It is important to continue this as we change the industry, add more of our voice and provide the support that filmmakers are looking for and need. It is a great story.”

The Foundation’s funding success this year will continue to extend into the awards season, as seven titles supported by the Fund have been chosen to represent their countries at the Academy Awards. Nominees include all of the previously mentioned Cannes award winners, as well as other critically acclaimed festival entries in Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah a Boy and Amr Gamal’s The Heavy.

Another pivotal strategic move for the Foundation in 2023 was to expand from supporting Arab and African projects through the Red Sea Fund to entering the global spotlight through funding through the Red Sea Film Foundation. The organization was behind Maïwenn’s Cannes opener “Jeanne du Barry” and Michael Mann’s star-studded biopic “Ferrari,” both of which took home awards at the 3rd Red Sea Film Festival.

“I think this international funding puts us on the map, makes us more global, and for me in the labs, it’s definitely an opportunity to get more professional films and more training on set,” Ashur said, highlighting how to achieve success in the next crop. The European and Hollywood films supported by the Foundation not only served as a global spotlight for the Fund, but were also an opportunity to train a new generation of Arab filmmakers.

This year, Red Sea Lodge sent its pupils to gain hands-on experience on the set of Johnny Depp’s upcoming directorial film, ‘Modi’. The film, from a screenplay by Jerzy and Marie Cromolowsky, is based on the play “Modigliani” by Dennis McIntyre, and follows the life of the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani. Ricardo Scamarcio is set to take on the titular role, with Al Pacino and Stephen Graham in the cast.

The trust is also behind Guy Ritchie’s next effort, Ministry of Indecent Warfare, a spy thriller based on the 2014 book Churchill’s Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of Desperate Special Forces in World War II by Damian Lewis. The film is a Lionsgate release and features a stellar cast of Henry Cavill, Eiza Gonzalez, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes.