The second edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea IFF) kicked off on December 1st and will run through December 10th. The festival takes place in Jeddah, a port city in Saudi Arabia located on the eastern shores of the Red Sea.
The opening ceremony saw three international talents presented with the Gold Yusr Honorary Award for their extraordinary contributions to cinema. The recipients included Indian superstar actor/producer Shah Rukh Khan, Egyptian cinema icon Yousra, and acclaimed British director Guy Ritchie.
The festival opened with the British cross-cultural romantic comedy What’s Love Got to Do with It? Directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Jemima Khan, the film stars Lily James and Shazad Latif.
The film program this year is expansive, including 131 feature films and shorts from 61 countries in 41 languages from both established and emerging filmmakers. The festival is hosting a mix of world premieres, Arab premieres, and Middle East & North Africa (MENA) premieres. The line-up also proudly includes a slate of 25 new Saudi films alongside international cinema selections.
Among the festival’s film categories, the Red Sea: Competition highlights the best creative achievements and includes a line-up of 26 shorts and 15 features. It also showcases some of the most exciting films produced in the past year from Arab, African and Asian filmmakers.
An exciting addition to the festival’s venues this year is the Red Sea Corniche, an outdoor venue which will host movie screenings and concerts for free during the ten-day festival. The Red Sea Corniche opened with director Aditya Chopra’s iconic Bollywood romantic blockbuster, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ). The popular film has influenced India’s pop culture for generations.
The Red Sea Souk, the festival’s industry market platform, is also currently under way. It runs from 3-6 December and offers attendees a busy program of curated events aimed at fostering industry networking, co-productions, international distribution, and other business opportunities. This year representatives from 46 countries are attending the Souk.
Also running at this year’s festival is a program of conversations, where festival-goers have the chance to hear filmmakers and actors discuss their cinematic careers. The line-up this year is impressive, featuring: Sharon Stone, Andy Garcia, Guy Ritchie, Luca Guadagnino, Gurinder Chadha, Nadine Labaki, Akshay Kumar, Spike Lee, Andrew Dominik, Fatih Akin, Adil El Arbi & Bilal Fallah, Kaouther Ben Hania, Nelly Karim, Mo Amer, Ranbir Kapoor, Antonio Banderas, Gasper Noé, Jackie Chan, and Hrithik Roshak.
Many stars, filmmakers and industry representatives from across the global film industry are in attendance at this year’s Red Sea IFF. Red Sea Film Festival’s CEO, Mohammed Al Turki, welcomed talent, industry professionals and film lovers to the second edition of the festival. He also commented that the Red Sea IFF has an important role to play in transforming the future of cinema, including making films accessible to wider audiences and showcasing new voices from diverse regions.
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