Yahoo News Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund Backs New Films By Haifaa Al-Mansour, Abderrahmane Sissako, Annemarie Jacir & Cherien Dabis
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Fund has unveiled its latest round of feature film grantees from the Arab world and Africa.
The announcement comes just days after the fund revealed it had boarded French director Maïwenn’s upcoming costume drama Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp, in its first European investment as executive producer.
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In its latest funding round for Arab and African filmmakers, it is getting behind 36 productions by Saudi, Arab and African filmmakers, 25 in or on the verge of production, 11 in post-production.
The 25 production grant winners include upcoming films by established directors such as Abderrahmane Sissako’s The Perfumed Hill, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Miss Camel, Annemarie Jacir, Kaouther Ben Hania’s Mime, Cherien Dabis, and Karim Moussaoui’s The Vanishing.
The fund has also gotten behind buzzy, emerging talents such as Saudi Arabian filmmaker Sara Mesfer, who is gearing up for her first solo feature Habibi And I In Eden.
Two of the films selected had previously been supported at the development stage by the fund, Joel Karekezi’s Captain Mbaye and Aicha from Mehdi M. Barsaoui, who won multiple prizes with his 2019 debut feature A Son.
The 11 post-production grantees include Floating In A Vacuum, the third film from Mohamed Ben Attia, whose debut feature Hedi best first film at the Berlinale in 2016; Tawfik Alzaidi’s Noura, produced by Paul Miller, and Karim Bensalah’s Blacklight, which won Venice Final Cut last year.
The Red Sea Fund falls under the umbrella of the Jeddah-based Red Sea International Film Festival Foundation, which also oversees the Red Sea International Film Festival in December.
“We are confident the Red Sea Funds will support the winners through the creative process to help share these important stories and showcase a raft of exciting new and established Saudi, Arab and African talent,” said the foundation’s CEO Mohammed Al-Turki.
The full list of funded films.
Production
Mehal Sefari
Directed by Abraham Gezahagne. Feature Fiction (Ethiopia, Canada, Denmark)
The Wandering Souls Of Kinshasa
Directed by Dieudo Hamadi. Episodic (Democratic Republic of the Congo, France)
Captain Mbaye
Directed by Joel Karekezi. Feature Fiction (Rwanda)
Sidi Kaba And The Gateway Home
Directed by Rony Hotin. Feature Animation (France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany)
Aicha
Directed by Mehdi M. Barsaoui. Feature Fiction (Tunisia, France, Saudi Arabia)
Thank You For Baking With Us!
Directed by Laila Abbas. Feature Fiction (Palestine)
Big Boys Don’t Cry
Directed by Muhammad Mustapha. Feature Documentary (Egypt, Germany)
Seeking Haven For Mr Rambo
Directed by Khaled Mansour. Feature Fiction (Egypt)
Mime
Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. Feature Fiction (France, Tunisia)
Hounds
Directed by Kamal Lazraq. Feature Fiction (Morocco).
Amina
Directed by Nora El Hourch. Feature Fiction (Morocco).
The Perfumed Hill
Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. Feature Fiction (Mauritania, France, Luxembourg, Taiwan R.O.C.)
The Vanishing
Directed by Karim Moussaoui. Feature Fiction (Algeria)
Yunan
Directed by Ameer Fakher Eldin. Feature Fiction (Germany, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, France, Italy)
Fifty Metres
Directed by Yomna Khattab. Feature Documentary (Egypt).
The Walled-Off Hotel VR Experience
Directed by Amer Shomali. Immersive (Palestine, Germany, Netherlands)
She Was Not Alone
Directed by Hussein Al-Asadi. Feature Documentary (Iraq)
Men In The Sun
Directed by Mahdi Fleifel. Feature Fiction (United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, Palestine, Denmark)
The 67th Summer
Directed by Abu Bakr Shawky. Feature Fiction (Egypt, France, Austria)
Habibi And I In Eden
Directed by Sara Mesfer. Short Fiction (Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
Miss Camel
Directed by Haifaa Al Mansour. Feature Animation (Saudi Arabia)
Al-Daar
Directed by Abdullah Bamajboor. Feature Fiction (Saudi Arabia)
3 Cold Dishes
Directed by Oluseyi Asurf and Apolline Traoure. Feature Fiction (Nigeria)
All That’s Left Of You
Directed by Cherien Dabis. Feature Fiction (Germany, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia)
All Before You
Directed by Annemarie Jacir. Feature Fiction (Saudi Arabia, Palestine, United Kingdom).
Post-production
Norah
Directed by Tawfik Alzaidi. Feature Fiction (Saudi Arabia)
Black Light
Directed by Karim Bensalah. Feature Fiction (Algeria, France)
Backstage
Directed by Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane. Feature Fiction (Morocco, Tunisia, Belgium, France)
Spring Came On Laughing
Directed by Noha Adel. Feature Fiction (Egypt)
Hackers Of Borders
Directed by Mohamed Ismail Louati. Feature Documentary (Tunisia, France, Germany, Lebanon)
Concrete Land
Directed by Asmahan Bkerat. Feature Documentary (Jordan)
Land Of Women
Directed by Ayman El Amir and Nada Riyadh. Feature Documentary (Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar)
Thiiird
Directed by Karim Kassem. Feature Documentary (Lebanon)
A City Below Zero
Directed by Medoo Ali. Feature Documentary (Iraq)
A Fidai Film
Directed by Kamal Aljafari. Feature Documentary (Palestine, Germany)
Floating In A Vacuum
Directed by Mohamed Ben Attia. Feature Fiction (Tunisia)
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