“It’s amazing because I never expected the festival to grow like this,” says Antoine Khalife, director of Arab programs and film classics at the Red Sea Film Festival, which kicked off its sophomor…
, which kicked off its sophomore edition this week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. “We are only on our second edition and have done great research to create different sections and bring great films to the festival, so it’s very exciting. I am quite surprised about what we managed to do in two years.”
“One of our goals is to support this industry but also to promote independent films,” he continued, “we don’t have a quota, we select projects without thinking about specific numbers or having a target in mind. For example, when we did our 2022 selection, we discovered many Saudi films were produced this year. We watched them and kept discovering more and more, so we ended up with seven feature films and many more short films.
“I have a vision for Saudi cinema,” he says on the legacy of the festival and its initiatives. “My aim is to work more and more with scripts that can be more exportable. I want people to think about scriptwriting, how they write, and how to work with actors. I think it’s something we really need to work on. I believe this will be our main mission, plus helping set up independent cinemas and getting independent films distributed in Saudi.
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