Saudi Film Festival 2020
The Saudi Film Festival 2020 is a Saudi film festival held at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran from September 1 to 6, 2020. It represented the sixth edition of the Saudi Film Festival. The festival's events were held online due to coinciding with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was organized by the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts branch in Dammam with the support of the Film Commission under the Ministry of Culture.
The Saudi Film Festival aims to promote the Saudi film industry and support local talent by showcasing Saudi artists, developing their skills through workshops and cultural seminars, and offering awards. The festival was first launched in 2008.
The "Audience Choice" Award was a highlight of the festival's sixth edition. For the first time, it allowed the audience to vote for one film from the categories of narrative, documentary, and student films, with the winning film receiving a cash prize of SAR10,000.
Competition categories and the jury panel of the Saudi Film Festival 2020
The festival participants competed for thirteen awards across four categories: Unproduced Screenplay Competition, Narrative Films Competition, Documentary Films Competition, and Student Films Competition. The cinematic submissions reached 384, including 279 screenplays and 105 films, and 177 unproduced screenplays and fifty-four films qualified for the festival's awards.
The festival appointed juries that awarded two prizes for each film competition category and four prizes for the Unproduced Screenplay Competition. For the first time, the festival introduced the Audience Award to select one winning film from the narrative, documentary, and student films categories.
The sixth edition of the festival awarded a total of SAR285,000 in prizes, including SAR40,000 for the Golden Palm Award for Best First Film, SAR20,000 for the Golden Palm for Best Second Film, and SAR10,000 for the Audience Award. Additionally, SAR75,000 was allocated to the four winning submissions in the Unproduced Screenplay Competition.
Winning works at the Saudi Film Festival 2020
The "Scenarist" (Scenario Writer) screenplay won the Golden Palm Award for Best First Feature-Length Screenplay in the Saudi Film Festival 2020, while "E'yal Qaryah" (Village Boys) won Best Second Feature-Length Screenplay. The "Surakh" (Screaming) screenplay received the Best First Short Screenplay award, and "Qumbar" (Night Fishing) won Best Second Short Screenplay.
The film "Wa Mata Anam?" (When Do I Sleep?) won the Golden Palm Award for Best First Narrative Film, while Lumière won Best Second Narrative Film. The Audience Award went to the film Hijab. In the Documentary Category, the film "Al-Qaryah" (The Village) won the Golden Palm Award for Best First Documentary, the film "Hawas" (Senses) won Best Second Documentary, and the film "Talal fi Dakar" (Talal in Dakar) received the Audience Award.
In the student film category, the film Awda (Come Back) received the Golden Palm Award for Best First Film, the film "Al-Awwal min Rajab" (The First of Rajab) won Best Second Film, and "Al-Da'erah Al-Hamraa" (The Red Circle) won the Audience Award.
Accompanying events of the Saudi Film Festival 2020
The festival introduced programs that engage with the new online format, including the Film Cafe, the Festival Studio, and the Festival Books Podcast. The festival also published seven books covering various aspects of cinematic knowledge, including critical, documentary, and translated works. Additionally, it launched a daily bulletin titled "Saafa" to share updates, news, and cinema-related articles with readers.