Cairo Film Festival Chief Mohamed Hefzy on the Need for More ‘Collaboration’ Between Arab Film Festivals

Palm Springs International Film Awards. The acclaimed actress is the recipient of the Career Achievement Award for her performance in Being the Ricardos, a biopic about Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz.“On American television there are few classic stars more beloved than Lucille Ball.

EXCLUSIVE: Nicole Kidman who has received various tributes at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala over the course of her career gets a big one during the upcoming edition on January 6 where she will receive the Career Achievement Award for her sterling performance as Lucille Ball in Being The Ricardos. Kidman has been showered with across the board praise for this role compared by many as pulling off a high wire act.

Levan Koguashvili’s Brighton 4th has scooped up the Best Film prize at Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea Film Festival. The title is Georgia’s entry in the Academy Awards international feature category this year.

Naman Ramachandran Levan Koguashvili’s “Brighton 4th” has won best film at Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea Film Festival, while Hamzah K. Jamjoom’s “Rupture” won best Saudi film.“Brighton 4th” is Georgia’s entry in the Academy Awards’ international feature category.Haider Rashid won best director for “Europa” and Adam Ali won best actor for his role in the film.

I’m more than halfway into my stay in Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival and what is becoming more apparent with each day that passes is that what this first-time event lacks in experience and organization, it makes up for in ambition.

Since Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year-old religion related ban on cinema in 2017, the country has been ramping up its efforts to attract local and international productions to come and shoot in the region. Film AlUla is playing a major part in the government’s Vision 3030 plan to modernize the country.

Red Sea Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s first international film event, gets underway, it’s become clear that the artistic director of the fest’s milestone first edition won’t be in charge of programming the second one.Edouard Waintrop, a former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight chief, was conspicuously absent Monday at the opening night gala at the Vox Cinemas multiplex in Jeddah’s historic Al Balad district.Instead of being on the star-studded red carpet, Waintrop was at his home in Spain suffering

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs the spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant prompts uncertainty around how the winter film festival calendar will play out, two events in the Arab world — the Cairo Film Festival and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea fest — have soldiered on, providing a measure of hope for the global festival circuit.Cairo, which kicked off Nov.

The glitterati was out in full force in Jeddah on Monday night as the inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival kicked off with the Middle Eastern premiere of Joe Wright’s musical romance Cyrano.

Alessandra Ambrosio and Candice Swanepoel glammed up the red carpet for the inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival on Monday night (December 6) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

A film festival is about more than just the films and the festival center. It is about the location, the journey, the experience. Here on Deadline we’ll be bringing you updates on what it’s like to be on the ground at the inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s first ever film festival. 

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentMexican director Joaquin del Paso’s coming-of-age drama “The Hole in the Fence,” set in an all-male religious camp in rural Mexico, scored the Cairo Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Pyramid, on Sunday capping a vibrant 43rd edition of the preeminent Arab event, which was held in person despite the impending threat of the coronavirus Omicron variant.Though there were some last minute cancellations, most international attendees made the trek to Cairo

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production platform wrapped Saturday with a glamorous prize ceremony which saw Egyptian first-timer Adhan El-Sherif’s “Ravens of the City” and French-Egyptian filmmaker Namir Abdel Messeeh’s “Life After Siham” stand out, though awards were widely spread.“Ravens” of the City,” a gritty drama in development about a reckless hustler named Gharib who desperately needs cash to enter a street car race and

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSlovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes’ “107 Mothers,” which premiered in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section and was selected as the Slovak entry for the Best International Feature Film category of the 94th Academy Awards, has won the Arab Critics’ Award for European Films.

Liza Foreman Opening this year’s Horizons of Arab Cinema section at the Cairo Film Festival, the omnibus film “Becoming” shows just how far the Saudi filmmaking community has come in supporting female filmmakers.Playing in an Out-of-Competition slot, directors Sara Mesfer, Fatima Al Banawi, Jawaher Alamri, Hind Al Fahhad and Noor Alameer collaborated to create this 70-minute fiction film, which seeks to amplify female filmmaking visions from the region.The filmmakers looked to “explore the

As Saudi Arabia gears up for the Red Sea Film Festival next week – its first ever film festival –, the country’s film commission has announced a set of key pillars and initiatives that aim to establish the country as a “world-class film hub with a target to build an industry with a revenue of $500M.”

If pop music ever gets boring, Alessia Cara might have a future in jazz.

Liza Foreman A record 5,100 short films were submitted to the Cairo Film Festival’s short film competition this year, thanks to a new collaboration with FilmFreeWay. Around 1,200 shorts are sent in more usually for the region’s only A-list festival.

Naman Ramachandran Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival (Dec.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Torino Film Festival, the pre-eminent event for young directors and indie cinema — now being revamped after going virtual due to the pandemic — will somewhat symbolically kick off its upcoming 39th edition with the international premiere of “Sing 2” with director Garth Jennings in tow.“It’s a hymn to going back into movie theaters,” says Torino artistic director Stefano Francia di Celle on choosing the animated musical comedy, featuring more