The Red Sea International Film Festival is an annual international film festival held in the historical area of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It showcases the most important and latest cinematic productions and films for filmmakers from around the world, including experimental and fictional Saudi films, both feature-length and short films. In 2019, the Ministry of Culture announced the launch of the festival as part of several initiatives by the ministry.
The Ministry of Culture assigned the presidency of the festival to the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, which was established to support the Saudi film industry in areas of production, distribution, education, and training. The foundation offers three main initiatives, namely the Red Sea International Film Festival, the year-round Red Sea Film Lab for development, and Industry Initiatives.
Sections of the Red Sea International Film Festival
The Red Sea Film Festival includes eleven sections to present cinematic, television, and interactive films, both Arab and international, namely: The Red Sea Competition, which includes fictional, documentary, and animated films; The Red Sea Short Film Competition, which includes films not exceeding sixty minutes; New Saudi Cinema, featuring Saudi fictional and documentary films from the creators and pioneers of the new cinema wave; World Spectacular, which includes the most important directors in the world and films shown for the first time in the Arab world; Arab Spectacular for the latest commercial and independent Arab films, in addition to Red Sea Series, Red Sea Visions, Family Cinema, Red Sea Treasures, Interactive Cinema, and international selections of the most notable works of film festivals.
The Editions of the Red Sea International Film Festival
The first edition of the festival was launched in 2020, showcasing 138 feature-length and short films from sixty-seven countries in thirty-four languages, including thirty-eight films directed by women and twenty-seven new Saudi films attracting thirty thousand viewers. The event was attended by 3,115 professionals from the film and media industries. The second edition of the festival was held in 2022, featuring 143 films from sixty-six countries. The event attracted 39,410 film viewers and 4,345 professionals from the film industry.
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