1 week Ago By Melanie Goodfellow
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 festival’s parernt body the Red Sea Film Foundation – and employed participants of its apprenticeship program as crew, will also screen in a special awards night gala.
Star power will also be assured on the red carpet through this year’s Red Sea honorees: Academy Award winning actress and producer Viola Davis ( The Woman King, Fences) and Egyptian superstar Mona Zaki, whose recent credits include Flight 404 , which is Egypt’s Oscar entry this year. Aside from being honored, Davis will also be at the festival as the co-founder of JVL Media, the full-service production/media packaging firm and publishing house she co-founded with Julius Tennon and Lavaille Lavette. The company will attend the festival’s Souk market and feature in the industry talks programming – exploring storytelling trends, funding and connecting diverse cultures beyond the screen.
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 festival has yet to unveil what talent will be hitting its red carpet this year. The jury and its high-profile In Conversations strand have also yet to be unveiled.
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.
