The Red Sea Film Foundation, the organization that oversees Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, has launched the Red Sea Fund, a $10 million fund that supports the projects of directors from the Arab world and Africa.
The fund will back over 100 feature projects in its first year, as well as episodic content, and will also be open to short films from Saudi nationals.
The festival’s newly-appointed artistic director, Edouard Waintrop, stated that helping African and Arab cinema grow, is a very exciting responsibility, noting that is what the Red Sea Fund will do at every stage of the making of the chosen movies and episodic content.
"In providing more than 100 grants of up to $10 million to help the development, production, and post-production of movies across the Arab World and Africa, the Red Sea Fund will help cinema that is in full metamorphosis.” he added.
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Red Sea International film festival poster[/caption]
The inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival is due to take place in Jeddah from 11-20 November.
It was initially set to launch in April 2020 but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The festival will see the launch of the Red Sea Souk, a regional marketplace, and industry hub. It will also include a project market, with pitching sessions of over 20 projects from the Arab world and Africa, and films-in-progress workshop. All projects that apply to the fund will automatically be eligible for the Red Sea Souk, project market and the Red Sea Souk films-in progress Workshop.
In a statement, Shivani Pandya, the Red Sea Film Festival’s managing director, stated that the fund is a major boost for the African and Arab film industry. The fund and the Red Sea Souk will provide more tools to support the Arab and African film business to make even more of an impact on the international marketplace with the launch of its project market and films in-progress workshop this November.
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