EXCLUSIVE: Few recent festival launches have garnered as much chatter as the Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s first ever film festival.Film festivals are largely seen as liberal spaces, but Saudi Arabia is one of the most culturally conservative and politically repressive countries on earth.
So how do these two truths marry up? On the eve of the event’s lineup announcement, we checked in with Festival Managing Director Shivani Pandya to talk about the challenges and opportunities that come with hosting a global event in the controversial state.The former Dubai Film Festival MD had been set to oversee the festival’s inaugural edition last March but, like so many events, it was cancelled due to the pandemic.
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