Saudi Film Festival 2021
The Saudi Film Festival 2021 is a Saudi cinematic event held from July 1 to 7, 2021. It marked the seventh edition of the Saudi Film Festival. The festival adopted a visual identity that accompanied its events under the theme: Desert Cinema. It was organized by the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts in Dammam, in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture "Ithra," and supported by the Film Commission under the Ministry of Culture.
The Saudi Film Festival played a role in encouraging the Saudi film movement, adopting cinematic scripts, and granting honorary and financial awards similar to global film festivals. The first edition of the festival was held in 2008.
Competition Categories and Jury of the Saudi Film Festival 2021
The Saudi Film Festival 2021, in its seventh edition, received 405 cinematic submissions, including 316 screenplays and eighty-nine films. A total of 268 works qualified to compete for fifteen awards, comprising 254 long and short screenplays, and fourteen narrative, documentary, and student films. In addition, twenty-two films qualified for the parallel screening.
The jury panel was divided into two categories: the Film Competition Jury, which consisted of five members, and the Unproduced Screenplay Jury, which included three members. The total amount of financial awards presented was SAR380,000, of which SAR70,000 was allocated to unproduced screenplay projects.
Winning Works at the Saudi Film Festival 2021
The jury of the Saudi Film Festival 2021 granted five awards for unproduced screenplays: Two awards for feature-length scripts, each worth SAR20,000, and three awards for short scripts, each worth SAR10,000. The winning screenplays qualified for entry into the "Script Development Lab", which was prepared for script discussion and improvement.
The award for Best Feature Screenplay went to "Al-Muridah", while "Awwal Jarimat Qatel Bi Al-Mohafathah" (The First Murder in the Governorate) won Second Best Feature Screenplay. The screenplay "Rakem Hatef Kadeem" (An Old Phone Number) received the award for Best Short Screenplay, followed by "Barzakh" for Second Best Short Screenplay, and "Lel Taw Ara Al Samaa" (Just Now I See the Sky) for Third Best Short Screenplay.
Ten awards were distributed in the film category, including eight Golden Palm awards and two special awards. The total prize value granted to the winning works amounted to SAR310,000. The film "Hadd Al-Tar" won the Golden Palm Award for Best Feature Film, "Hikayat Roshan" (Roshan’s Tale) won the Golden Palm Award for Best Documentary Film, and "Al-Ta’ir Al-Sagheer" (The Little Bird) won the Golden Palm Award for Best Short Film.
The film "Arbaoun Aaman Wa Layla" (Forty Years and a Night) gained three awards: The Golden Palm-Jury Prize, the Golden Palm Award for Best Music, and the Golden Palm Award for Best Actor, which was awarded to Mishaal Al-Mutairi for his role in the film. The film "Sayyidat Al Bahri" (Lady of the Sea) won the Golden Palm Award for Best Cinematography, and the Golden Palm Award for Best Actress, which went to actress Basima for her role in the film.
The Saudi Film Festival 2021 dedicated two awards, namely the Abdullah Al-Muhaysin Award for Best First Film, which went to the film "Bayda Tamarradat" (A Rebellious Egg), and the Tuwaiq Mountain Award for Best Film about a Saudi City, awarded to "Hadd Al-Tar", which was set in Riyadh City.
Accompanying events of the Saudi Film Festival 2021
The Saudi Film Festival 2021 adopted several programs that were first introduced in its electronic edition in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the Film Café Program, the Festival Book Program, the daily bulletin "Sa’fah", as well as the screening of several Gulf films. It also published six knowledge-based, translated, and documentary books about the honored figures.
The Saudi Film Festival selected Saudi filmmaker Mamoun Hassan and Bahraini filmmaker Bassam Al-Thawadi to receive the Honored Personality Award in the festival’s seventh edition.