Red Sea Film Foundation, the Saudi Arabian establishment which oversees the country’s Red Sea International Film Festival – Red Sea International Film Festival, has launched Red Sea Fund, a $10 million fund that is aimed towards supporting film projects helmed by directors from the Arab and African regions. The funds will be utilized to support more than 100 feature film projects and some episodic content as well in the first year. The fund will also be open for short films from Saudi filmmakers.
The festival’s newly appointed artistic director Edouard Waintrop stated that helping Arab and African cinema grow is a very exciting responsibility and that the selected features will be receiving up to $10 million to support the development, production, and post-production stages of movies, thereby helping cinema that is in full metamorphosis.
The Red Sea International Film Festival is scheduled to take place in Jeddah from 11 November 2021, after being postponed from its initial date that was set in April 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will also facilitate the launch of the Red Sea Souk, a regional marketplace and industry hub, which will include a project market with pitching sessions of more than 20 projects from the directors of Arab and African filmmakers, as well as a films-in-progress workshop. All projects that will be applying for the Red Sea Fund will be automatically eligible for the Red Sea Souk – project market and the Red Sea Souk films-in progress Workshop.
