KSA participates in the Cannes Film Festival with a national pavilion to introduce the promising film sector
Ashraf AboArafe
Kingfom of Saudi Arabia will participate in the Cannes International Film Festival in its 75th session, which will be held from May 17 to 28, with a national pavilion supervised by the Film Commission. A number of government and private agencies participate in it. They are: the Ministry of Investment, the Red Sea Film Festival, the Al-Ula Film, the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture “Ithraa”, the NEOM Company, the MBC Group, in addition to bodies representing the media and entertainment sectors in the Kingdom, including production, distribution and content companies, and an elite group of talents. Saudi Arabia is promising in the film industry.
The CEO of the Film Authority, Abdullah Al Ayyaf, stressed that returning to the Cannes Film Festival to communicate with the international film industry to spread awareness about what is happening in the emerging film sector in the Kingdom, and to present the elements it possesses that make it a unique cinematic destination in the film industry, returning the festival as an ideal opportunity to present what is It is owned by the Kingdom in this vital field, in addition to being an important platform to support emerging Saudi talents whose work will be shown in one of the most important international festivals.
The Saudi pavilion will host a session entitled “The Reality of Arab Cinema” in the “Souk Cannes” region, organized by the Film Authority, in which Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy, Saudi producer and director Ayman Khoja, and Tunisian director Lotfi Nathan, who is participating in the current session of the Cannes Festival in the “One Look” section, will participate. With his new film “Harga”, which won the Red Sea Market Award from the Red Sea International Film Festival, the session will address the reality and future of Arab cinema, and the opportunities and challenges that must be overcome to build a strong sector that will raise the status of Arab cinema to enjoy opportunities for international competition.
The “Al-Ula Film” will also highlight the Kingdom’s potential as a global center for the film industry, in a symposium organized in cooperation with the American Pavilion, in which the Director General of Sector Development and Investment Attraction from the Film Authority Abdul Jalil Al-Nasser, Stephen Strachan of Al-Ula Film, and the General Director of Sectors will participate. Media, entertainment and culture from NEOM Wayne Borg Company, General Manager of MBC Studios in the Kingdom, Zainab Abu Al-Samh, Hideaway Entertainment President Producer Matt Rhodes, and CEO of Capstone Christian Mercury.
The symposium will discuss the advantages that the Kingdom will offer to the regional and international film industry, through huge internal investments coupled with strong financial offers and incentives, and a stimulating and incubating environment for creativity that supports production and contributes to creating a new scene that enriches filmmakers locally and globally.
The Saudi participation in the Cannes Film Festival comes in the context of local efforts led by the Film Authority to build an ideal field for an influential cinematic industry in the Kingdom capable of attracting the most important international productions. The beginning came with three major films from Hollywood, for which the Kingdom provided distinctive filming locations in the last 18 months, namely: the movie “Kandahar” directed by Rick Roman Woo, which was filmed in the exceptional landscapes of Al-Ula Governorate and the historical Jeddah region, and the historical epic movie “Desert Warrior”. .
