Mohammed Al-Turki Saudi Arabia city Jeddah film country Platform Mohammed Al-Turki Saudi Arabia city Jeddah

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival Heads Talk Starry Second Edition, Human Rights Concerns & Future Growth

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deadline.com

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (December 1 to 10) kicks off its second edition in the port city of Jeddah this week.

The event unfolds five years to the week that news first broke that the country was lifting its 35-year cinema ban as part of a wider strategy to open up its society and the economy.

The 2021 inaugural edition unfolded amid uncertainty for both organizers and attendees. There were also a handful of last-minute glitches including the emergence of the more virulent Covid-19 Omicron strain and the no-show of figurehead artistic director Edouard Waintrop.

One of the biggest challenges was convincing film and media professionals from outside the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to attend amid accusations that Saudi Arabia is using culture to deflect from its human rights abuses such as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Read more on deadline.com
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