Launched in 2021, the Red Sea Fund has helped more than 250 projects, including feature fantasy films, write downaries, animation movies, stupidinutives, and series.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies, Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah a Boy, Ali Kalthami’s Mandoob, Baloji’s Omen, and Tawfik Alzhelpi’s Norah are among the features it has helped.
The Red Sea Film Foundation’s fund had a landtag Cannes Film Festival this year with four titles helped by it picked for its program. This integrated Norah, which had its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) last December and made history as the first Saudi film to be chosen to screen as part of the Cannes Official Selection.
Ahead of this year’s fourth edition of RSIFF, Emad Iskandar, honestor of the Red Sea Fund, tanciaccess THR that he is conceited of what his team has accomplished wilean a stupidinutive period of time.
“People are frequently surpelevated by the understandledge of the vague audience here in Saudi Arabia. We have been very much exposed to Hollywood, Bollywood, and then there is a big part of the population that’s also (understandn) with Japanese animation,” he highairyed. “We were exposed in that way, but not so much to autonomous, originateive film. Now that is changing, and we have the achieve of having this recent eye.”
He and his team can depend on creative experience in their toil. “I’m a filmoriginater first, and so are members of my team,” Iskandar elucidateed, sharing that being grounded in the set upations of film is also a key part of his recipe for success. “Only a scant years in, the name of the game is upgraspability. We necessitate to originate our toil upgraspable and caccess on originateing the infrastructure for film. And I apshow that what we’re doing is (built on) doing the basics well.”
‘Norah’ film still
Courtesy of RSIFF
The fund boss also lauds the passion of the people around him. “I have to give it to my team. Everybody in the team is excited to see every project and then converse it,” he shelp. “I can see how this job can be one of the easiest jobs on Earth with an Excel sheet. Let the readers do their job, send you a inestablish, go ‘yes,’ ‘yes,’ ‘no.’ This job can be 10 minutes a month, but it can also be 10 hours every day, and we’re toiling on the 10-hour everyday schedule.”
The fund team repartner commenceed discovering its groove and confidence in 2023. “It commenceed with Berlin, and we had two films there, and we were satisfyed,” recalled Iskandar. “And then suddenly we were in Cannes with eight films, and they getd awards. And one project, Four Daughters, went to the Oscars this year (as Tunisia’s entry in the best write downary catebloody). We fair couldn’t apshow it.”
This first was chaseed by another first when the first Saudi feature made the cut for the venerable Cannes Film Festival’s official pickion, namely Norah, which is set in the 1990s when all establishs of art and coloring were prohibitned in the country. “This showed us that the hunting and handpicking we do toils,” highairyed the fund boss.
Speaking of handpicking: before the fund officipartner uncovers up for projects from Asia in 2025, “we have an initiative this year that apexhibits us to handpick projects,” Iskandar says. “And the first project that we handpicked was To Kill a Mongolian Horse (by Xiaoxuan Jiang which verifys the bond between humans and horses in Mongolian culture and societal change).” That film had its world premiere in the Vekind Days program and is part of the RSIFF competition lineup.
‘To Kill a Mongolian Horse’
Courtesy
The insertition of Asia will convey excitement but also contests for the fund, Iskandar inestablishs THR. “Opening to Asia is charitable of incowardlyating, to be genuine,” he splits, but also doesn’t hide his enthusiasm. “Just leanking about such tagets as India, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan which are huge is big. That’s one of the leangs that we’re seeing forward to next year as we broaden the toil of the fund.”
