Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Souk Market Enjoys Busiest Year Ever As It Doubles Exhibitor Numbers & Draws Industry Heavyweights

deadline.com:

The media spotlight may have been on the raft of Hollywood A-listers hitting the fourth edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival in the port city of Jeddah over these past 10 days, but what was happening in the backdrop at its market was no less remarkable.

Like the rest of the festival, the Red Sea Souk market returned to Jeddah’s historic quarter of Al-Balad, taking up residence in a vast temporary exhibition space.

Running from December 7 to 11 – exactly seven years to the week that Saudi Arabia announced to the outside world in 2017 that it was lifting its 35-year cinema ban as part of a plan to open up the country and its economy – the market’s fourth edition was its busiest to date.

Draws are the country’s $1B box office; its hunger for expertise as it builds a film industry from scratch, the 40% film production cash rebate and its emerging talent pool, as well as the opportunity for some to squeeze in a trip to new studio spaces in places such as AlUla and Neom.