Tag: Red Sea Film Festival

Red Sea Film Festival’s Shivani Pandya Malhotra on Saudi Cinema’s Rapid Rise and Navigating Western Skepticism

In just five years, Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has gone from an ambitious start-up to an established stop on the global festival circuit — and few people have had a closer view of that transformation than managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra. A veteran executive with more than 25 years in the entertainment business, and previously the longtime managing director of the Dubai International Film Festival, Pandya Malhotra joined the Red Sea Film Foundation in 2019 with a remit to build a world-class festival from scratch and a year-round engine to finance and nurture filmmakers across Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab world, Africa and Asia.

Under her leadership, the foundation has rolled out four key pillars — the festival, the Red Sea Souk market, Red Sea Labs and the Red Sea Fund, which has already supported some 280 projects from across the region. Since debuting in Jeddah’s UNESCO-listed Al Balad district in 2021, the festival has showcased more than 520 films from 85 countries and over 130 Saudi titles, helping put a once-nascent local industry on the map as the country’s box office and production levels surge.

The fifth edition, running Dec. 4–13, 2025, leans into Red Sea’s “East meets West” mission: Rowan Athale’s boxing biopic Giant opened the festival, while a 16-strong competition line-up mixes new work from Asia, Africa and the Arab world, including Saudi Oscar submission Hijra and the world premiere of Somali director Mohammed Sheikh’s Barni. Sean Baker, fresh off his Anora Oscar run, presides over the jury, as a packed talks program welcomes guests ranging from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Adrien Brody to Giancarlo Esposito, Juliette Binoche, Darren Aronofsky, Ana de Armas, Nicholas Hoult and many more.

The Hollywood Reporter connected with Pandya Malhotra to discuss the festival’s rapid growth, the structural challenges still facing Saudi’s film industry, and how she responds to Western skepticism following the recent backlash over the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

How would you describe the original vision when you began building the Red Sea Film Foundation and festival in 2019? Five years later, how do you feel about how you have or haven’t fulfilled those goals?

When we started in 2019, it really was a clean slate — which is very exciting but also a huge responsibility. We knew from the outset that we didn’t just want a festival; we wanted a foundation with four core pillars that would support an entire ecosystem: a festival, a market, labs and a fund. The idea was to build something that could nurture talent and projects year-round, while also creating a truly international platform.

From the beginning, we were clear that our international focus would be on Asia, Africa and the Arab world. That’s the region we wanted to champion and become the ultimate platform for. Today, all of those verticals are fully open to that geography, and we’ve been very strategic about sticking to that long-term plan. There’s always more to be done, I feel we’ve accomplished a lot.

It’s unusual to launch a new festival in a country where the public film culture is so young. What did you learn about Saudi audiences from that first edition, and how have they evolved over five years?

What surprised us most is how cinema-literate people already were. For decades, Saudis have watched a huge amount of cinema — but privately, at home. So the culture was there; it just wasn’t a collective experience. We didn’t fully realize how much they had already absorbed until we opened the festival.

In that first year, we were unsure how audiences would respond to foreign-language films and independent cinema. Then we started seeing sold-out screenings for everything from Indian films to anime. We had one Indian title where we were nervous we wouldn’t fill the room — and it completely packed out. We discovered there was a long history of people watching Indian cinema, Egyptian cinema, some arthouse, anime… all of that had been part of people’s lives already.

What has changed over five years is that we’ve become much more audience-focused in a targeted way. This year’s program is very consciously shaped for this public: there’s something for families, for genre fans, for people curious about arthouse cinema. And you can see that reflected not just at the festival but in Saudi box office admissions generally. International films regularly rank in the top 10 here now, and the market is growing this year, which is also why so many studios are suddenly very interested in this market.

What do you see as the major structural challenges that still need to be addressed for the Saudi industry to become fully self-sustaining?

Every pillar of the ecosystem is developing — the infrastructure, the creatives, the financing, the international interest. The ambition and enthusiasm are enormous, and film is part of Vision 2030, so there is strong support at a national level.

Where we still need to accelerate is in crew and craft. The creative talent has always been here; a lot of people moved from being YouTubers or content creators into filmmaking, and that adaptation has happened quite quickly. But to sustain the volume of production we’re now seeing — and the international projects that are coming in — we need experienced crews on the ground at every level. That just takes time, targeted training and investment.

For us at the foundation, that’s one of the main reasons we launched the Labs very early on. We run feature labs with TorinoFilmLab, series labs with Film Independent, shorter programs with USC and Misk, workshops on sound design, film music, scriptwriting — all of these are about building capacity. And of course, there are other institutions in Saudi that have their own strategic programs. Collectively, those efforts will help fill the gaps. But it will take some time.

Were there particular international models you looked at when imagining how Red Sea and the Saudi industry might develop?

I think everyone in this part of the world looks at Korea. What they achieved across film, series and pop culture is remarkable — and, in my view, very strategic. They championed their cinema, they worked to get it seen internationally, and they built a global audience over time. It didn’t happen overnight, but suddenly it felt like Korean content was everywhere.

We’ve definitely studied what others have done, including Korea, knowing that each country has its own curve and you can’t just copy-paste a model. But you can learn from the way they structured support, how they positioned their stories globally, and how they kept investing for the long term. From a Saudi perspective, that’s very inspiring.

Looking ahead another five years, what would count as success for you — or as a sign that the foundation has achieved what you hoped?

On a practical level, I’m quite pragmatic: I want to see films we’ve supported doing well both on the festival circuit and commercially. Already this year, seven films backed by the Red Sea Fund have been selected by their countries as Oscar submissions, which is incredibly encouraging. But for me, the real success is when those kinds of films are also reaching audiences and performing at the box office.

We’ve already seen several Saudi films, including titles we’ve supported or premiered at the festival, become top-grossing releases in the local market. I’d love to see a diverse slate of films — from different countries, in different styles — traveling to major festivals, winning awards and also finding sustainable audiences. That balance between artistic recognition and commercial viability is very important if the industry is going to thrive.

Because most of THR’s readership is in the U.S., I do want to ask about the recent backlash around the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and the way some Western observers view cultural events in Saudi primarily through a political or human rights lens. How do you respond to that skepticism?

For us at the Red Sea Film Foundation, we’ve always been very focused and strategic about what we’re doing. In the early years, there was definitely some skepticism around people coming to the festival. But I can genuinely say that everyone who has actually attended has seen the work we’re doing, experienced the atmosphere and the community, and wanted to come back. That’s why you see so many returning guests — high-profile talent, directors, industry figures.

Often, the loudest critics are the ones who have never been here. They don’t know Saudi; they haven’t seen the changes on the ground. This is a question I’ve been asked consistently over five years, and my answer is always the same: come and see it. Judge for yourself. Speak to the people who have attended — regardless of where they are from — and they’ll tell you about their experience.

Have the headlines around the Riyadh comedy festival made it harder this year to convince American filmmakers or industry participants to attend?

Honestly, no. At this point, people are familiar with us. Almost everyone we invite either has a friend who has been to Red Sea or knows someone who has worked with us. Word of mouth from those guests has been our strongest ambassador. The feedback they share about the festival, the people they’ve met here and the filmmakers they’ve discovered has been overwhelmingly positive. We haven’t faced resistance on that front at all.

What are you most excited about in the fifth edition’s program?

It’s difficult to single out films, but I’m very proud of the shape of the competition and the strength of our women filmmakers this year, particularly from the Arab world. We have filmmakers like Haifaa al-Mansour, Annemarie Jacir, Kaouther Ben Hania and Shahad Ameen presenting new work, alongside a broader line-up that really reflects our Asia–Africa–Arab focus.

I’m also excited about the overall range: Giant as an “East meets West” opener; a competition that includes the world premiere of Barni and titles like Hijra and Lost Land; and our International and Arab Spectacular strands, which bring together everything from Angelina Jolie’s Couture to Haifaa’s mystery thriller Unidentified.

Then there’s the conversations program — Sean Baker presiding over the jury and doing a masterclass, Adrien Brody and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan joining In Conversation, Giancarlo Esposito mentoring our SeriesLab participants. All of that creates a very rich environment for dialogue between local and international talent.

You previously spent many years helping build the Dubai International Film Festival. What lessons from that chapter have you applied in Jeddah?

There were many lessons. From Dubai, I took a very clear sense of what works structurally in a festival, what kinds of industry support are most effective, and what the region as a whole needs in terms of platforms. When I came to Saudi, I didn’t yet know exactly what Saudi needed, but I did know what the wider region lacked.

For someone attending Red Sea for the first time — maybe a reader who’s curious after all these headlines — what’s your practical advice for getting the most out of the festival and Jeddah?

From a festival perspective, I’d say: don’t just stick to the red carpets. Watch films in competition, go to the In Conversation sessions, drop into a Souk talk or a masterclass if you can. That’s where you really feel the energy of the community we’re trying to build.

And then take time to explore Al Balad. We’re based in a UNESCO heritage site, and the old town tells you a lot about Jeddah’s history as a gateway to the kingdom — you feel the diversity of people and cultures that have passed through here. If you manage to escape the festival bubble, the beaches are beautiful, the food scene is fantastic, and there’s a growing number of local chefs doing really interesting things. My hope is always that first-time visitors come once for the films, and then come back because they’ve genuinely fallen in love with the place.

Patrick Brzeski

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December 10, 2025
Influencer Culture Drama ‘Early Days’ Unveils First Teaser Ahead of Red Sea Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

The first teaser has been unveiled for “Early Days,” a Mumbai-set drama about the perils of influencer culture that will world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.

The India-Singapore co-production, directed by feature directorial debutant Priyankar Patra, has been selected for the festival’s New Visions Competition, which runs Dec. 4-13 in Jeddah.

The film marks a timely exploration of digital-age relationships, following a young couple thrust into social media visibility as they navigate love, ambition and economic survival in India’s most expensive city. Blending cinematic realism with the visual language of social media, “Early Days” captures what Patra describes as “what happens when life itself becomes performance.”

“I wanted to tell a story that feels intimate but universal,” said Patra, whose previous credits include producing several international festival titles under the For Films banner.

The project is executive produced by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, whose films “Labour of Love” won an award at Venice, while “Once Upon A Time In Calcutta,” where Patra was one of the producers, premiered there. Co-producers Isabella Sreyashii Sen and Olivier Dock, co-CEOs of Singapore’s Hazelnut Media, bring global distribution expertise to the project.

“Priyankar’s voice is distinct and urgent,” Sengupta said. “This film captures our times with empathy and sharp observation.”

The cast features newcomers Manasi Kaushik and Sarthak Sharma, with a creative team including editor-producer-composer Anupam Sinha Roy, sound designer Sukrit Sen and production designer Sayanika Mukherjee. Patra shot the film.

Sen and Dock said they were drawn to how the film “interrogates the human cost of online aspiration —it’s both a deeply personal story and a quietly incisive social portrait.”

For Films, based in Mumbai, focuses on character-driven cinema exploring intersections of technology, emotion and modern Indian life. Hazelnut Media specializes in impact production with a focus on cross-cultural storytelling.

Watch the teaser here:

Naman Ramachandran

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November 1, 2025
‘Tiger Stripes’ Review: Puberty Brings Out the Monster Within in Feisty Malaysian Genre Movie

With her debut feature “Tiger Stripes,” Malaysian writer-director Amanda Nell Eu joins an exciting group of directors who provide subversive takes on genre and body horror. Julia Ducournau and “Raw” comes to mind, as do Agnieszka Smoczynska and “The Lure” and John Fawcett and “Ginger Snaps” — like David Cronenberg before them.

Eu, an MA graduate of the London Film School, blends Malaysian folklore with heightened realism and a large dollop of “Mean Girls” in the story of a tween going through changes wrought by puberty and alterations in her friendship group. World premiering at the Cannes Critics Week, it came away with the Grand Jury Prize for best feature and has been collecting additional kudos ever since. It represents Malaysia in the Oscar international feature competition.

Bold 12-year-old Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) is the natural leader among her group of gal pals, all currently seniors at their religious primary school. She’s the one who wears a bra under her proper Islamic attire, doffs said attire to splash in an idyllic forest pool and does wild dances for TikTok.

Although she hangs out with Zaff, the younger-seeming Farrah (Deena Ezral), a spiteful prefect, is actually both jealous of and disgusted by her. Meanwhile sweet-faced Mariam (Piqa) tries to keep the peace as the trio wend their way home, meowing when they are being catty, gluing colorful stickers everywhere and filming themselves on their phones.

When Zaff becomes the first girl in the school to start menstruating, it catalyzes physical changes in her as well as the sudden loss of her top-girl status, orchestrated by the sneaky Farrah who doesn’t miss a chance to shame her and get the others to ostracize her as well. Things aren’t exactly period positive at home either as her stern mother tells her, “You’re dirty now.”

Zaff doesn’t have any one to talk to about what’s going on; about the viciousness of her former friends, her physical transformations and urges, or her sightings of a red-eyed female demon among the treetops. Although she tries to hide by adding gloves to her modest Islamic dress, the more she is provoked, the more she transforms into a were-tiger, capable of bounding up trees (courtesy of a kind of cheesy but charming special effect) and killing and eating small animals.

When Farrah leads the other girls in brutally bullying Zaff in the seniors’ toilet one day, Zaff decides to embrace her monstrosity and release her inner tiger, causing hysteria amongst the girls and the teachers. Unctuous publicity hound Dr. Rahim (Shaheizy Sam) arrives on the scene and convinces Zaff’s parents that an exorcism will fix the problem. More mayhem ensues.

Eu’s smart script makes Zaff’s story into a parable about individuality and independence and whether to stay hidden in shame and fear or express one’s own power and freedom. To put that point across, she’s aided immeasurably by the strong casting of the three main girls and their chemistry. Because of the pandemic, Eu had a longer pre-production period to work with them and an acting coach, and to share and discuss the themes of the film.

Inventively shooting on a tight budget in essentially three locations — the school, the thick green forest and Zaff’s home — Eu uses nature as a liminal space where the girls can keep their childish ways yet be wild without worrying about the judgments of their community. It’s a place where they peacefully co-exist with wild animals and sometimes hard-to-spot demons.

From the exuberant credits and opening sequence through to the end, “Tiger Stripes” is the work of a confident new talent whose next work will be eagerly awaited.

Alissasimon

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December 8, 2023
International Insider: Budget Blow For BBC; Red Sea Wraps Up; ‘Crown’s Off To Them

Good afternoon Insiders, here we go again with a busy old week in TV and film. Max Goldbart penning the newsletter. Read on and sign up here.

Bad Times For The BBC

BBC/Guy Levy

Déjà vu: When you’ve been doing this for a little while, nothing gives off more of a sense of déjà vu than BBC budget woes. It always starts the same way. A downtrodden UK Prime Minister desperately seeks a distraction hook and latches on to the nation’s favorite (ish) broadcaster, in this case saying over the weekend that the public cannot afford the previously-agreed inflationary rise to the licence fee next year that would have seen the fee shoot up by nearly £15 ($18.90). Several days and one new chair appointment later, and the sentiment was confirmed by Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, who said the fee will instead rise by just more than £10, as the government shifted the goalposts. While an extra £10 per person doesn’t look too bad at first glance, the move is set in context of two years’ worth of licence fee freeze, rampant inflation in production costs and stiff competition. Put bluntly, the BBC really needs more money. Unveiling yet another government review into the BBC’s future funding model, Frazer also pointed out that fewer people are paying the licence fee nowadays. This means that stiff hikes put more pressure on those who still do pay, but the BBC would likely flip the point and say fees should rise by even bigger amounts if fewer people are paying them. The BBC’s grave response said it all: “Our content budgets are now impacted, which in turn will have a significant impact on the wider creative sector across the UK.”

“Destabilizing”: The move leaves the BBC with an estimated shortfall of £90M, alongside the hundreds of millions of savings it already needs to make, and more cuts in programing are no doubt coming — “Inevitably program expenditure will be cut first,” said one connected source. But insiders are not only peeved by the inevitable hit to the coffers. If the government is now going to decide annually how much the licence fee rises by — rather than sticking to a pre-agreed 11-year long inflationary rise — two insiders pointed out that this will make budgeting for the following year incredibly difficult. Not only that, but it also leaves the BBC more exposed to political agendas. There are intricacies to the changes to the inflationary measure but the government has effectively pegged this year’s rise to September 2023’s figure, as opposed to the average across the past year. It all feels a bit random. There is little the BBC technically can do but work may begin behind the scenes to mount a campaign to convince the government that it is in no one’s interests to continually mess around with the figure. Jake spoke to insiders and his analysis has more. The BBC statement’s stress on the impact on the “wider creative sector” felt pertinent.

Musical chairs: Before the licence fee decision became official, there was the small matter of the new BBC Chair, who was unveiled Wednesday as British TV vet Samir Shah. Shah has previously spent years working for the BBC, runs an independent production company and has advised the government on numerous matters. He is well-liked and well-known, although perceived by some as a slightly surprising choice. Prior to the licence fee decision being announced by Frazer, one source close to the government said Shah had been working closely with the Culture, Media and Sport department of late and was “aligned” with these funding plans. He joins with a busy in-tray and with a need to regain trust in the BBC following the Richard Sharp debacle, which saw the previous Chair forced to resign over his role in a loan facilitation for Boris Johnson. And whether a help or a hindrance, Shah comes from a media family. His brother Mohit Bakaya runs BBC Radio 4 and his sister Monisha Shah is on the Ofcom content board.

Cultural test: Elsewhere in public broadcaster land, ITV chose the moments after Frazer’s Commons speech to publish its long awaited review into Phillip Schofield, the former This Morning presenter who resigned after admitting to an affair with a much younger colleague. ITV may have been hoping licence fee woes would act as a distraction but the actual contents of the report didn’t appear to give the broadcaster too much to worry about. Following more than 50 interviews, the review’s author rejected the much-raised notion of a “toxic culture” on This Morning and scotched the idea that Schofield’s affair had been an open secret. It would have been a big problem for ITV had it been deemed the opposite. Jane Mulcahy KC listed a number of recommendations including the forging of a “talent charter” for high-profile presenters of Schofield’s ilk that would set “out key standards ITV expects to be upheld.” With Schofield’s co-host Holly Willoughby having also departed, ITV will be hoping it can close this particular chapter. The BBC’s equivalent — a report into behavior by newsreader Huw Edwards — publishes soon. And would you look at that, we’ve managed to go an entire Insider public broadcasting lead without mentioning Channel 4…

Riding The Red Sea Wave

Getty

Star power: Saudi Arabia’s third Red Sea International Film Festival handed out its prizes overnight with Pakistani-Canadian director Zarrar Khan’s horror picture In Flames winning Best Film. The jury led by Baz Luhrmann was joined on the red carpet by some serious star power in Halle Berry, Andrew Garfield, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicolas Cage and Henry Golding, among others. They followed in the wake of a raft of A-Listers making the trip to the festival’s Red Sea port home of Jeddah over the past week, including Johnny Depp, Will Smith and Chris Hemsworth. Beyond the glitz of the red-carpet galas at the festival’s Ritz Carlton hub, the ‘place to be’ was the Vox Cinema multiplex in Jeddah’s Red Sea Mall. The venue hosted a series of intimate In Conversations with the likes of Smith, Cage and Berry as well as packed out screenings of local and regional features. Highlights of the latter included the Saudi premiere of Riyadh-set social thriller Mandoob, which met with a rapturous response from a youthful audience. The drama is the latest feature from rising local studio Telfaz11, which scored a box office hit with free-wrestling comedy Sattar earlier this year. Mandoob, revolving around a night courier who falls foul of an alcohol smuggling ring, has all the ingredients to achieve similar success. Another Saudi highlight was Tawfik Alkaidi’s drama Norah, about a young girl growing up in a remote farming community in the 1990s, at the height of the crackdown on cinema and other arts. Luhrmann was spotted quietly slipping into the screening, reportedly watching the work for a second time. The film appealed to local and international spectators alike, with one critic in the room declaring it should be Saudi Oscar submission next year. Just six years after Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year cinema ban, its filmmakers are coming into their own. Deadline was out in force at the festival this year and you can read all our coverage here.

‘Crown’s Off To Them

Final hurrah: Whatever you think of The Crown and its various controversies, there is no doubt Netflix’s smash is one of the defining TV series of this generation. So it was no surprise that this week’s final season premiere hurrah was as glitzy as they come. Our roving International Editor-at-Large Baz Bamigboye strode the red carpet with queens, princes and princesses past and present, with an attendee list including but not limited to Imelda Staunton, Olivia Colman, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Jonathan Pryce, Gillian Anderson, Emma Corrin, Erin Doherty, Jason Watkins and Jonny Lee Miller. Speaking to Baz, current lead Staunton detailed how things had both changed and stayed the same following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II last year, explaining: “[The Queen] got on with it and I took great comfort in that.” Baz and his fellow Crown attendees were then treated to the premiere of the final episode, one that was slightly altered by creator Peter Morgan following the Queen’s death. It ended in rapturous applause. This doyen of British TV shows is almost at its end and, while its creative team are no doubt looking forward to leaving the limelight for a bit, it will certainly be missed. Check out the full picture gallery here.

Spotlight On Singapore

Carola Frentzen/dpa (Photo by Carola Frentzen/picture alliance via Getty Images

Reporting from AFT: Sara Merican was on the ground at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market (ATF) this week and there was plenty for readers to get their teeth into. High-profile attendees discussed the issues of the day, including those that dominated the agenda of the recent WGA/SAG negotiations such as AI and dealmaking. Chinese streaming giant iQiyi hailed the integration of artificial intelligence into its development and pitching processes (“We can turn 2,000,000 words in a novel into an 8,000-word document that outlines the plot and includes character analyses,” said Chief Content Officer Wang Xiaohui), while execs from some of the world’s biggest production houses posited that Hollywood dealmaking has become more reliant on the international market. These weighty proclamations came as a report into the Korean streaming industry found subs had grown once again in the nation to around 19 million, coming as the local market braces for the merger of Tving and Wavve as they battle to take on the big American players. And check out this killer scoop from Liz, who broke the news that Parasite production outfit Barunson E&A is moving into the burgeoning Indonesian film industry.

Bye Bye Benjamin

Image: Tom Jenkins/Getty Images

“A proud Brummie and a proud Peaky Blinder”: Thoughts to the family of Benjamin Zephaniah, the iconic British poet and Peaky Blinders star who has died aged 65. Zephaniah was known for his radical and often deeply political poetry, his love for Jamaica, and his powerful and soulful delivery. He famously turned down an OBE, writing: “No way, Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.” He was simply an inspiration for original thinkers. Born into a poor family, he left school in Birmingham at age 13 unable to read or write but used a typewriter to teach himself both skills. At this point he was already performing poetry live, and his unique style helped him become an influential voice in Black politics and identity, leading to meetings with the likes of Nelson Mandela and The Wailers. Tributes came flooding in about a man who touched all corners of British society. In a statement issued to Deadline, Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy called Benjamin a “proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder.”

The Essentials

Vertigo

🌶️ Hot One: Danny Dyer is leading Marching Powder from new UK distributor True Brit; read our exclusive interview with True Brit’s Zygi Kamasa here.

🌶️ Another: Netflix is poised to greenlight French and German versions of reality format Surviving Paradise.

🌶️ Another one: Jean-Claude Van Damme is starring in Kill ‘Em All 2, which will shoot in Antigua from Jan.

⛰️ Summit: UK children’s TV bods will gather early next year to explore how to resuscitate the ailing sector.

😠 Grant grumps: Curmudgeonly Love Actually lead said he “hated” playing an oompa-loompa in Wonka.

🏕️ Festival latest: Cannes Market has named Switzerland as 2024’s Country of Honor.

🏕️ More festivals: EFM boss Dennis Ruh talked us through changes at the Berlinale Series Market.

✂️ Cuts: Canada’s CBC/Radio-Canada is laying off 10% of its staff and the nation’s media guild is “shocked.”

🖕🏼 Excuse me?: A BBC News presenter was caught giving the middle finger to camera in an on-air gaffe.

🤝 Done deal: Letterkenny creator Jared Keeso signed a first-of-its-kind content pact with Crave & New Metric.

🖊️ Signed up: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, director of Kill, put pen to paper with WME.

🏪 Setting up shop: Hollywood’s The Gotham Group outside the U.S.

🍿 Box office: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been confirmed for a theatrical release in Japan.

🌎 Global breakout: Nancy was on hand to spotlight Thai horror Tee Yod.

🖼️ First look: At The Traitors UK Season 2, launching January 3.

Melanie Goodfellow contributed to this week’s Insider

Max Goldbart

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December 8, 2023
Nicolas Cage Talks the Superman That Never Was, Top Five Screenplays, Filming the ‘Most Humiliating Sex Scene in the History of Cinema’

From internet memes to a slew of movies, this is the Age of Cage, but Nicolas Cage himself revealed that as he approaches his 60th birthday he is taking stock. He told a sold-out audience at the Red Sea Film Festival that he was winding down his film career after 45 years and over 100 films: “I want to do television; maybe Broadway.” His decision – inspired in part by his son Kal-El showing him “Breaking Bad” — won’t be final, as he has several film projects in the pipeline, including “Sympathy for the Devil,” co-starring festival jury member Joel Kinnaman and a sequel to 2005’s “Lord of War” — “My character’s son grows up and becomes a rival. It’s very Arthurian,” he said.

The Academy Award winning actor hyped by the “good energy” in the room talked through the four decades of his career and every film mentioned was greeted by whoops and applause from an enthusiastic to the point of deafening audience. Cage explained his name change – “Filmmakers don’t want the name Coppola above the title of their movies” – and shared many stories that spanned his entire career, at one point simply responding to whatever film the audience cried out. “Face/Off” was mentioned: “That one might be a masterpiece,” he said. “Ghost Rider” – “It’s like Disney made a film about Faust; like a tattoo which came to life.” Cage spotted a fan holding up a poster for the film and called her to the stage to show the audience, revealing he often goes on eBay to buy memorabilia from his own films as well as comic books of which he’s an avid collector.

Had acting not turned out, his Plan B had been to become a fisherman in Alaska, and so couldn’t help but talk about some of the films which got away. He was in play for the George Clooney role in “A Perfect Storm.” The film which he most regrets losing and which got the biggest cheer of the night was “Superman,” with Cage as the Man of Steel and Tim Burton directing: “The studio wanted Renny Harlin and were frightened it would cost too much money so they shut it down.”

While making “City of Angels” his decision to not blink as the angel was in preparation, he said, for playing the otherworldliness of Kal-El (a.k.a. Clark Kent) in the planned “Superman,” which would have immediately followed it. Cage also noted that he’d approached David Bowie to write a theme song for “Superman.”

The “Wild at Heart” star also paid respect to those who helped him in his career such as “Valley Girl” director Martha Coolidge who picked his headshot out of a pile; his uncle Francis Ford Coppola “was like a dad to me,” and co-stars such as Sean Connery. “He wanted to play golf and I wanted to go fishing and so we ended up talking about movies.” Cage’s clear intellectual philosophy when it comes to screen acting was clear. “Independent dramatic cinema is my well,” he said. And throughout the talk he characterized himself as a student always trying to push himself into zones of discomfort. He listed his top five screenplays as “Raising Arizona,” “Vampire’s Kiss,” “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Adaptation” and “Dream Scenario.” Two of his favorite films are “Pig” and “Dream Scenario.”

Securing an Oscar for “Leaving Las Vegas” was like getting tenure, Cage said. “My uncle sent a telegram that read ‘Congratulations Nicky, from Francis Cage.’” Having achieved critical recognition, Cage embarked on an unexpected stint as an action hero in films such as “The Rock” and “Con Air.” More recently he discovered that he had become a meme, googling his own name to find a series of videos entitled “Nicolas Cage loses his shit.” The shock left him “confused, frustrated and a little stimulated.” His new film “Dream Project,” about a man who finds that he is appearing in everyone’s dreams, is directly related to Cage’s own changing relationship to fame: “I suffered from the memification and my character suffers from the dreamification.” It also features what he describes as “the most humiliating love scene in the history of cinema.”

Now Cage has taken to picking his projects more “severely and stringently” and is acutely aware of the passage of time. “I have a 15-month-old daughter waiting for me at home.” Asked if he shows his children his films, he laughs “absolutely not. We watch the cartoon ‘Invincible.’ It’s wild.”

Leo Barraclough

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December 8, 2023
Gwyneth Paltrow Talks Mentors, Wellness and Marvel Movies: ‘I’ve Never Seen ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ I’ve Never Seen Any of These’

“A lot of Goop,” one of the attendees remarked on leaving Gwyneth Paltrow’s In Conversation talk taking place at the Red Sea Film Festival. “A bit lopsided,” another agreed. Many of the gathered gripped Marvel posters and wore Marvel T-shirts, but everyone was happy to welcome an actor whose career has spanned films as diverse as “Se7en,” “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Shakespeare in Love,” and the biggest applause came when she said that this was her first time in Saudi Arabia.

The first female CEO of the Saudi Research and Media Group Jomana al-Rashid acted as moderator and began the talk with a survey of Paltrow’s acting career and her first inspiration: “My mother is an actress. She did mostly theater. And so I grew up as a little girl watching her rehearse plays and running around the theater. My mother would even say she always felt a bit insecure. When she was on stage, she was the most powerful, integrated force of nature that I have ever seen. And so I wanted to be that.”

Having been spotted on the street by a casting agent as a 17-year-old schoolgirl — “I hate to say smoking cigarettes” — Paltrow snuck to the audition and, though she didn’t get the part, her mother found out and from that time on encouraged her. She identified her defining role as the secret smoker and one-time childhood prodigy Margot in Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums”: “My daughter’s friends watch it and love it. It’s all these years later. It’s very fun.”

Asked about navigating the film industry as a woman, Paltrow responded that “women artists have always been allowed a bit more latitude than in other professions,” citing Sarah Bernhardt, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, “but at the same time there has been a side of Hollywood that has been a bit darker and more exploitative of young women. Luckily, I managed to avoid most of that.” This despite her harassment at the hands of Harvey Weinstein, as detailed in Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s “She Said,” a book for which Paltrow was key as a source and supporter of other women giving their evidence.

As mentors, Paltrow listed David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as Wes Anderson and Anthony Minghella. But Paltrow recounted one early lesson that came from one of her lesser movies. “I did a really, really terrible movie with Jessica Lange (1998’s ‘Hush’). That is just shit. But I learned so much from watching her. She had such an interesting style and technique that she had developed over all these years. And so some people like that… I think about these amazing people that I got to work with and see all the different ways and then kind of made my own techniques.”

Much of the rest of the talk was taken up with Paltrow’s move into the Wellness industry with her pioneering Goop brand, and her role as a businesswoman and entrepreneur: “We’ve just started this very cool food delivery service. I’d love to bring it into the Middle East.” When the floor was opened to the audience, with the exception of a man from L.A., all the questions related to Paltrow’s film work. Would she return to acting? “I never say never.” One of the questioners grew up when cinema was banned in Saudi Arabia and recalled having to travel to another country in order to see “Emma.”

As for Marvel for which she played the role of Pepper Potts in films like “Iron Man” and “Avengers Assemble,” Paltrow recalled her reluctant entry into the MCU with Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man.” “They said it’s going to feel like doing an indie film. We’re gonna have fun and you don’t have to be in too much of the action part anyway. So I thought, Oh, okay. And we had such a good time. We improvised almost every scene of that movie. We would write it in the morning in Jon’s trailer, and it was like doing [an indie] film. Then, the movie was such a huge hit that we didn’t make them like that anymore. To be honest, I stopped watching them at some point. I’ve never seen ‘Endgame.’ I’ve never seen any of these. I can’t keep track. I probably should at some point.”

Leo Barraclough

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December 7, 2023
Saudi Arabian Filmmakers Form Trade Association to Hold Sway in Booming Sector Regulations

Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning filmmakers have formed a trade organisation called Film Association in an effort to hold sway in regulations being laid out for the country’s booming film industry.

The Saudi Film Association, announced during the ongoing Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, comes five years after the government removed its 35-year-old religion-related ban on cinemas. Since then, Saudi Arabia has built studios, formed film commissions and launched tax incentives for production.

The Saudi Film Association initiative is being led by Saudi Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, who is known to be a film buff.

Presiding over the trade organization is prominent Saudi actor Mishal Al Mutairi, known for his roles in the TV series “Yawmeyat Wadah” (“Wadah’s Diaries”) and “Al Aramela” (“The Widows”). Board members include producer Alaa Faden, founding member and the CEO of leading indie studio Telfaz 11; writer and director Hanaa Al Omair whose 2020 thriller series “Whispers” was Saudi Arabia’s first TV drama to launch on Netflix; pioneering director Tawfiq Al Zaidi, whose drama “Norah” is in competition at Red Sea; beloved actor Abdulmohsen Al-Nimr whose most recent film is high-end camel racing drama “Hajjan,” also at Red Sea; and Abdulaziz Al Muzaini, director of animated hit “Masameer” and co-founder and CEO of Myrkott animation studio. Given that the emerging Saudi film industry still lacks some fundamental regulations when it comes to matters such as IP ownership, writer and talent credits and residual rights, one of the association’s most pressing matters is “to [help] establish laws and legislation to protect all parties and platforms,” Al Muzaini said in a statement.

Faden noted that the Saudi Film Association will be key for Saudi content creators going forward in terms of “unifying” contractual agreements when it comes to various types of rights, and underlined the need for “an association with global standards that represents the [industry] workers and seeks their rights” in order to bridge the gap between the local industry and global unions.

Nvivarelli

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December 6, 2023
Shows With Arab, Muslim Characters Go Global: ‘This Is a Culture That Loves Telling Stories’

Original TV series based on Arab and Muslim characters are beginning to go global, a Netflix executive said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival.

Ahmed Sharkawi, director of Arab content, Netflix Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that a new, distinctive voice was emerging from the region.

“Recently, a friend called me and her mother-in-law – who is 100% American – was recommending one of our Arab series [“Finding Ola,” starring Hind Sabri] to all her friends,” he said at a panel about writing for television.

“This wave [of Arab and Muslim stories] is beginning; the U.S. audience is becoming open to watching stories that are outside of the U.S. experience.”

The region was rich in a tradition of storytelling that meant there were many original scripts being written, he said.

“There are so many stories in this region that have not been told before, so [our job is] about harvesting that intellectual property.”

“This is a culture that loves telling stories; we all grew up on the folklore – of our grandmothers telling us stories, some true, others not. The challenge is for the writer to find the right point of view to tell those stories.”

Two Arab Netflix series have become big regional hits, he added. “Crashing of Eid” is a Saudi Arabian series about a U.K.-based Saudi woman’s teenage daughter who thinks that marrying her British-Pakistani boyfriend will be approved by her parents without question.

Jordan’s “AIRawabi School for Girls” – written by a women-only team with a largely female production crew – dives into the experience of teenaged girls at a single-sex school.

His comments at the panel – The Writer’s Journey: Navigating Scripts for Films, TV & Future Storytelling Formats – were echoed by other guest speakers.

New Zealand-based, Egyptian-born writer Mohamed Hassan used his own experience of growing up in Auckland – where he started his career as a journalist – to create “Miles From Nowhere” – a six-part series produced by Gibson Group and Homegrown Pictures about the impact of the “war on terror” on New Zealand’s small Muslim community.

“I became a screenwriter to tell a story that I felt was not being told – how the Muslim [diaspora] community experienced the war on terror,” he said.

“And the best way to tell that story was through comedy. The stories were alive and people were talking about them all the time – but for this sort of story we wanted a receptive ear from the other side, and we found that through comedy.”

“Miles From Nowhere” tells the story of how a young Kiwi-Muslim songwriter forms a dangerous friendship with the Security Intelligence Service agent spying on him, risking his whole community to fulfil his dreams.

Los Angeles-based producer at Cedar Tree Productions, Karim Zreik, who grew up in Lebanon before emigrating to the U.S. as his home country descended into civil war, said that the Arab world was seeing an explosion in original content just as the U.S. was “hitting the reset button” and cutting back on budgets.

“Budgets are slimming down – but at the end of the day, it is all about the writing, and what message your show’s characters have. Be bold, be daring and your writing will always stand out.”

Sheri Elwood, a Canadian-born showrunner and writer from Los Angeles – who is half-Lebanese – said that stories that work globally are ones that have at their core universal themes.

Elwood, who worked on Netflix hit series “Lucifer,” said that the key to understanding what on the surface is a genre series, was to see what is at its core: “It is a story about a young man with family issues, who does not get along with his father. That is why it works. This is a story about a broken, dysfunctional family.”

Leo Barraclough

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December 2, 2023
‘Hiding Saddam Hussein’ Director Halkawt Mustafa on Keeping His Project Secret for 14 Years

It was one of the largest manhunts in history. Having been ousted from power following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, the country’s once all-powerful and ruthless leader, went into hiding as an estimated 150,000 troops scoured the land for the individual known as “High-Value Target Number One.”

Incredibly, Hussein evaded capture for almost eight months, famously emerging disheveled and bearded from a tiny purpose-built hole under a flowerbed near the town of Tikrit. Three years later, he was hanged.

But who dug the hole for Hussein? Who helped keep him hidden from the U.S. army despite a $25 million reward? In Halkawt Mustafa’s feature doc Hiding Saddam Hussein, the Kurdish/Norwegian filmmaker lets Alaa Namiq tell his incredible story on camera for the first time, explaining how the toppled dictator turned up at his farm unannounced and then spent an incredible 235 days there before he was found. During that time, this humble Iraqi effectively assumed the role of presidential hairdresser, physician and bodyguard.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Hiding Saddam Hussein’s Middle East premiere at the Red Sea Film Festival on Friday, Dec. 1, Mustafa discussed how he managed to keep his project shrouded in secrecy for almost all its 14-year journey, Tinder’s crucial role in its making, the dramatic adaptation he’s now developing with the writer of The King’s Speech, and the difficulties of bringing a human side to a ruthless dictator responsible for his own family’s fleeing from the region.

When did you first have the idea of finding the man who had kept Saddam Hussein hidden?

As soon as they found Saddam Hussein in the hole I was really curious. Firstly, was it true, because a lot of people didn’t believe it. And then, how was it possible? He was the all-powerful president, so how did he end up in this hole? But I didn’t know how to find the man who helped him. I searched for two years, and then the Washington Post named him in 2012. And with his name, I was given the opportunity to track him down. It took me one year to sit down with him, but then he didn’t want to talk. He’d just come out of Abu Ghraib prison. He was in one of the famous photos taken [with U.S. soldier Lynndie England]. The only reason he’s alive today is because the Abu Ghraib scandal came out and they closed it.

But Alaa Namiq had no connection to Saddam himself?

No, from the beginning I just expected he would have been connected or related. But no, he had no connection. He was just a simple farmer and he was by chance the one chosen to hide Saddam from his family, friends and 150,000 soldiers.

Did you always know it was just one guy?

No, and this has been part of the process of making this movie. The most important thing I learned is how patient you need to be to tell your story. And it’s not only telling his story, but humanizing him and seeing the story from his perspective. We’ve always seen Saddam Hussein as the dictator, the powerful president. But then you see the king losing his power, and then it’s about balance and then Alaa takes over.

As a Kurd whose family was forced to flee due to the brutality of Saddam Hussein, how did it feel for you to explore this human side of him?

To be honest with you, it was hell difficult to make this movie. From my perspective, my mother came from the area which was bombarded by Saddam’s chemical weapons. But I really wanted to give Alaa the chance to tell the story from the Arabic perspective, because almost everything we have seen about the Iraqi invasion has been told from the Western perspective. This is why I decided, almost from the beginning, to let him tell the story in exactly the way he wanted.

After you tracked Alaa down, how did you convince him to speak to you?

I think the one thing that I did that the Washington Post didn’t was that I was patient. I spent 14 years on this from beginning to end. But the turning point was ISIS, because when ISIS took over, Alaa told me that everything Saddam had told him about what would happen to Iraq happened. And then he realized that he had to tell this story. Everything Saddam predicted about the future of Iraq came true.

It must have been fascinating from your side, irrespective of the documentary, to hear about how and why this Iraqi farmer agreed to hide the world’s most wanted man.

I had so many questions. Why didn’t he sell Saddam to claim $25 million. Why couldn’t he just say, sorry I can’t help you because there are 150,000 U.S. soldiers looking for you? Why are you hiding him, not just from U.S. soldiers but even from his family? No one knew. It was really difficult to understand, from my own Scandinavian perspective, why you can’t just escape with your family and leave him, if you’re so scared. But from his perspective, somehow I began to understand, especially if you have only one TV channel in your country and everything about your president is beautiful and perfect, and then he comes to your house and asks you to help. In Arabic culture, you never ask your guests how long they plan to stay. Because Saddam asked if he could stay for one night. In the end, it was 235.

Given the rise of ISIS, was safety a concern when making this?

Yeah, ISIS had taken over where we wanted to shoot the movie. In the end, I secretly brought Alaa to Norway, because no place in the Middle East was safe to do the interview. Also, I want to tell you something funny, but all our communication before that had been through Tinder. Not directly but via middlemen, because it was safe. We made Tinder profiles for the men connecting me with Alaa. Also, almost everything about this project has been kept secret only up until the last two months.

How do you keep a film you’re working on secret for 14 years?

It was something I had to learn! Even in the post-production process, the people who were working on it didn’t know what the project was about. And in Iraq, when we were shooting, I wrote a script about drinking water disappearing from the area. They thought I was shooting a movie about climate change.

I’m assuming this was mostly for Alaa’s safety?

Yeah. We had lots of meetings about ensuring Alaa was kept safe. But he said that the only thing he wanted to happen before he died was to tell people the story, to tell the truth behind the hole.

Obviously, there’s a very serious nature to this story, but it also feels like the relationship between Saddam and Alaa could have several comedic drama elements, particularly over the switch in power as the simple farmer effectively becomes the president’s only protector.

Yeah, this is actually a story of friendship. And this is why I’m working on a drama based on the story with David Seidler, who wrote The King’s Speech. We already have a script, and I hope I’m going to direct.

Alex Ritman

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November 30, 2023
Hollywood star Sharon Stone gasps, screams ‘oh my God’ after seeing Shah Rukh Khan next to her

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan is known for his charm and with that he has captivated many. The latest to join is the Hollywood star Sharon Stone, at the Red Sea Film Festival. In a video, Sharon can be seen looking at Shah Rukh with awe after spotting him right next to her.

Sharon first gasps and then says, “Oh my God!” as the host introduces Shah Rukh Khan to the crowd. She was seen wearing a black pair of gloves on her hands and a beige dress. She screamed and Shah Rukh watched her response and leaned in to say hello. They were seen on camera exchanging “Namaste” as well.

During the ceremony, Shah Rukh Khan received recognition as well. He accepted his award and addressed the audience in Arabic. He apologised in the opening for the speech’s length. He remarked jokingly that I am overjoyed because this is the first time I have been recognised and taken seriously at a film festival.

Shah Rukh and Kajol attended the Red Sea Film Festival because the opening film was their smash hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. In one of the videos, SRK can be seen singing Kajol the Tujhe Dekha Toh song from DDLJ. He also gave Kajol his well-known line from Baazigar.

After receiving the award, he said, “I am truly honoured to receive this award from the Red Sea International Film Festival. It’s wonderful to be here among my fans from Saudi and the region who have always been huge supporters of my films. I’m looking forward to celebrating the region’s talent and being a part of this exciting film community. Film is a unifier because it transits shared human experiences across cultures. You like a film because it stirs your emotions, be it in whatever language or culture it is from. And Thank God for subtitles. It brings all that is human to the fore and it shows perhaps better than any other art, how despite the immense diversity of the world we live in, our basic pursuits and emotions are the same.”

“Cinema celebrates diversity. It doesn’t stop short of fully exploring differences. And doing so, in the most beautiful fashion, it teaches us not to be afraid of those differences,” he added.

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December 3, 2022