Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival Unveils 2024 Line-up

The Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled the bulk of the line-up for its fourth edition, which will showcase 120 films from 81 territories from December 5 to 14 in the port city of Jeddah.

The festival will open with Egyptian director Karim Shenawi’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family (aka Light) about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy with a beautiful voice, who faces adversity due to his unique appearance.

Abandoned by his father and bullied by his peers, he dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, singer and actor Mohamed Mounir. When he gets a chance to audition for The Voice, Daye and his family embark on a perilous 1,000-mile journey from Southern Egypt to Cairo.

Michael Gracey’s semi-biographical feature Better Man, inspired by Robbie Williams and portraying the pop icon as chimpanzee, will close the festival.

Johnny Depp’s Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which was supported by the Red Sea Film Foundation, and employed participants of its apprenticeship program as crew, will also screen in a special awards night gala

Further starry titles in the Gala line-up include Peter Chelsom’s A Sudden Case Of Christmas, with its star Danny Devito expected to hit the red carpet in Jeddah, Pablo Larrain’s biopic Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as iconic tragic opera singer Maria Callas; Mehdi Idir’s Monsieur Aznavour, starring Tahar Rahim as the French crooner; and Thierry Teston and Lisa Azeulos’ Jane Fonda-narrated doc My Way, and We Live In Time with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.

The main competition will feature 15 titles from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

A number of titles, which have already created buzz on the festival circuit, will have their MENA premieres at the festival such as Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, which debuted at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight; Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat’s Sima’s Song, exploring the evolution of women’s rights during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in the 1970s, and Indian director Reema Kagti’s comedy Superboys of Malegaon, based on the true story of a group of amateur filmmakers who came together to create a film that honors their city, and Iraqi-Austrian filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon.

This year will see the festival return to Jeddah’s historic Al Balad district, after two editions at the Ritz-Carlton while the headquarters for its parent body the Red Sea Film Foundation were being built. The festival’s unveiled its promotional video for this edition, shot against the backdrop of the gentrified Al Balad quarter to give a taste of what participants and spectators can expect.

2024 Line-up TITLE/director

Red Sea: Competition

SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON
Reema Kagti

HANAMI
Denise Fernandes

TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Mahdi Fleifel

MOON
Kurdwin Ayub

SONGS OF ADAM
Oday Rasheed

RED PATH
Lotfi Achour

SNOW WHITE
Taghrid Abouelhassan

BIN U BIN, BORDER ELSEWHERE
Mohamed Lakhdar Tati

SAIFY
Wael Abumansour

AÏCHA
Mehdi M. Barsaoui

SEEKING HAVEN FOR MR RAMBO
Khaled Mansour

SIMA’S SONG
Roya Sadat

6 IN THE MORNING
Mehran Modiri

TO KILL A MONGOLIAN HORSE
Xiaoxuan Jiang

SABA
Maksud Hossain

Arab Specular Special Screenings (Announced Nov 5)

ABDO & SANEYA
Omar Bakry

FRONT ROW
Merzak Allouache

HOBAL
Abdulaziz Alshlahei

LAIL NAHAR

MY DRIVER AND I
Ahd Kamel

Red Sea: New Vision (announced Oct 30)

ALROSHAN
Mohammed Ous

KEMOKAZI
Abdulrahman Batawie

 OTHMAN IN THE VATICAN
Yasir Bin Ghanem

WHEN THE LIGHT SHINES
Ryan Al Bishri

YALLA PARKOUR
Areeb Zuaiter

Red Sea: Series (announced Oct 30)

GHOST TRAIN
 Se-Woong Tak

LOST WORLDS WITH BETTANY HUGHES: THE NABATAEANS
Jim Greayer

TALES ON BANKS OF THE BOSPHORUS
Zeina Sfeir

ZORRO
Jean Baptiste Saurel

Red Sea: Shorts Competition – Arab Selection:

FRAGMENTS OF LIFE
Anis Ben Dali

SAINT ROSE
Zayn Alexandre

THE SIGNAL
Nasser Alqattan

SHAMS
Adam Rayan

CHIKHA
Ayoub Layoussifi and Zahoua Raji

AFRICAN FAMILY DINNER
Ibrahim Mursal

IN THREE LAYERS OF DARKNESS
Houcem Slouli

CHILDREN OF BARZAGH
Ahmed Khattab

MERA, MERA, MERA
Khaled Zidan

MALIKA
Maram Taibah

LAND OF GOD
Imad Benomar

NEMSHI?
Assaf Al Rousan

FIZR
Rani Nasr

ZAHRA
Hadi Shatat

ONE LAST TIME
Karim Rahbani

Red Sea: Shorts Competition – International Selection (Announced Oct 18)

ACROSS THE WATER
Viv Li

ALAZAR
Beza Hailu Lemma

HATCH
Alireza Kazemipour and Panta Mosleh

LAI LEI
Binglin Cui

LUNGE
Negar Hassanzadeh

NAILS
Triparna Banerjee

NEVER HAVE I EVER
Joyce A. Nashawati

PIE DAN LO
Kim Yip Tong

RADIKALS
Arvin Belarmino

SANKI YOXSAN
Azer Guliev

UREFU WE KAMBA
Mageto Ndege

WASHHH
Mickey Lai

New Saudi, New Cinema Selection:

A MOSQUITO
Raneem Almohandes and Dana Almohandes

THE POST
Zakaria Albashir

THE DREAMER DREAMS
Abdulmohsen Albinali

UNDERGROUND
Abdulrahman Sandokji

PAVLOV’S BELLS
Khalid Fahad

KHAMSEN
Abdullah Alrowis

TWO SISTERS
Waleed Alqahtani

TIED
Yam Fida

WHERE’S THE IMAM?
Abrar Qari

WHEN THE SHELVES HYMN
Hanaa Saleh Alfassi

ASEER MEMORY
Saad Tahaitah

DIAA SHAMSI
Lama Jarkas

SUGAR
Khalid Bin Waleed

THE EXTRAORDINARY MISADVENTURES OF THE AMAZING BOY SUPER-BLURRY
Hassan El Hejaili

SAEED’S DAY
Mohammed Zawari

GUM
Belal Albader

THE EDGE (ORA)
Ahmed Alqithmi

THE CERTAINTY
Ahmad Kurdi

DOES IT HURT TOO BAD TO LOOK AT ME?
Rana Matar

Winners of the fourth edition of the 48 hours challenge:

ALL IN ONE NIGHT (AION)
Thoraya Akram

AFEN
Nawaf Alkinani and Othman Al Khowiter