New $100 Million Saudi Film Fund Chief Talks Need for Investments in Production and Infrastructure

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia in September launched a $100 million film fund aimed at attracting investments from global film studios to help fuel the kingdom’s rapidly growing local film industry.

The Saudi Film Fund – as the fund is known – sees Saudi’s Cultural Development Fund making a 40% investment in collaboration with investment bank MEFIC Capital and specialized holding company Roaa Media Ventures, which is its technical partner.

The fund is being announced just as the Saudi Film Commission launches the second edition of the Saudi Film Confex confab in Ryadh where roughly 130 local, regional and international industry execs specialized in production, exhibition and studio construction, will be gathering Oct.

9-12. Ahead of Saudi Film Confex, Variety spoke with RMA Ventures chairman Redha Alhaidar, who noted that since the kingdom lifted its religion-related ban on cinemas in 2018 and started setting the wheels of Saudi Arabia’s film industry in motion “the quality of the [local] projects today is much better,” adding that he thinks “this will continue to develop because we see a lot of talent coming into the pipeline after realizing that the ecosystem is open and enabling.” Alhaidar, who is also a former president of the General Commission of Audiovisual Media (GCAM) – which is the Saudi’s media industry’s regulatory body – took questions from Variety about the specifics of the new first-of-its-kind Saudi Film Fund. One key aspect of the fund is that it’s geared toward two types of investments: media-related infrastructure and production, if I’m not mistaken.