The ominous task that faced Eve Hewson when she first read John Carney’s script for Flora and Son had been accepted before she even realized it.
02.12.2023 - 17:59 / variety.com
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor It’s a busy year for the Red Sea Souk, the market arm of the Red Sea Film Festival dedicated to discovering new Arab and African talent. The same could have been said of every year of the market’s three-year history, however, with Saudi Arabia’s lightning-fast film industry solidifying the Souk as the principal film market for the Middle East and North Africa. The third edition of the Souk, taking place between Dec.
2-5, marks the first time the market held an open call for submissions. Previously, selection happened directly or through the Red Sea Fund. According to Red Sea Souk manager Zain Zedan, the response to the open call was overwhelmingly positive.
“We had over 300 submissions, a great number for our first call. It also gives us an indication that there is a lot of interest as people are seeing what the Souk has done in the previous two years. We’re thrilled to see the progress of the films we have selected so far.
We had films showing at Cannes, Toronto, Venice and more this year and it’s great to see how they have developed,” Zedan says. The films selected for the Souk’s various competitive strands vie for cash prizes adding up to $400,000 and split between development, production and post-production. Amongst the executives attending this year’s edition are representatives from Netflix, VOX Cinemas, MUBI, Cinemox, MBC and Telfaz 11.
The ominous task that faced Eve Hewson when she first read John Carney’s script for Flora and Son had been accepted before she even realized it.
Cuckoo (above) from filmmaker Tilman Singer and Johan Renck’s Spaceman with Adam Sandler, a Netflix film for which a trailer just dropped.The seven films are as follows.Cuckooby Tilman Singer | with Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csókás, Jan Bluthardt Germany 2024Berlinale Special Gala | World premiereDostoevskij (Dostoevsky)by Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo | with Filippo Timi, Gabriel Montesi, Carlotta Gamba, Federico Vanni Italy 2024Berlinale Special | World premiere | SeriesSasquatch Sunsetby David & Nathan Zellner | with Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Nathan Zellner, Christophe Zajac-Denek USA 2024Berlinale Special | International premiereSeven Veilsby Atom Egoyan | with Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Ambur Braid, Michael Kupfer-Radecky Canada 2023Berlinale Special Gala | International premiereSpacemanby Johan Renck | with Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, Paul Dano USA 2024Berlinale Special Gala | World premiereTreasureby Julia von Heinz | with Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry, Zbigniew Zamachowski Germany / France 2024Berlinale Special Gala | World premiereWu Suo Zhu (Abiding Nowhere)by Tsai Ming-liangTaiwan / USA 2024Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary FormArtistic Director Carlo Chatrian announced seven films in all for next year’s festival with the remaining line-up due in mid-January.“It is with special pleasure and pride that we welcome back directors who have presented their work at the festival in the past. Berlinale Special will be home for new films by Julia von Heinz (Treasure) and Tilman Singer (Cuckoo), both with projects involving American stars, for the irreverent comedy by the Zellner brothers (Sasquatch Sunset) and the dark
Selome Hailu Netflix has renewed reality dating series “Love Is Blind” for its sixth and seventh seasons, with Season 6 set for a Valentine’s Day premiere. The series follows singles who want to be loved for who they are, who have signed up for a less conventional approach to modern dating, and will choose someone to marry without ever seeing them based on a series of conversations through a wall. Over several weeks, the newly engaged couples will move in together, plan their weddings and find out if their physical connections match the strong emotional bonds developed in the pods.
Paris Fury has shared a look inside the family's incredible winter break to Saudi Arabia. Paris and Tyson are taking some time for themselves ahead of Christmas, after a busy year for the latter with boxing, and for them both following the arrival of baby Rico, whom they welcomed in September.Tyson, 35, and Paris, 33, were joined by friends as the group of 14 boarded a huge private jet to their destination.The couple are also parents to Venezuela, 13, Prince John James, 11, Prince Tyson II, seven, Valencia, five, Prince Adonis Amaziah, four and Athena, two. While on holiday, the family decided to sign up to a hair-raising session of parasailing across the crystal clear Red Sea.
A popular star of Hindi films for a decade with over 80 million Instagram followers, Alia Bhatt, best known internationally for her 2022 double Gangubai Kathiawadi and RRR, has fast become one of India’s hottest exports.
The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.
Nicolas Cage doesn’t really care if you know he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola.
EXCLUSIVE: Veteran action icon Jean-Claude Van Damme is set to star in sequel Kill ‘Em All 2, which will shoot in the Caribbean island of Antigua from January.
“Entrepreneurship and acting are very similar. Both require the same kind of energy,” Goop CEO and Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow told a crowd during a career retrospective this evening at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
Post-pandemic audiences are much more open to different cultures, thanks to streaming and exposure to new types of content, but some of the world’s biggest film industries are still figuring out how to adapt in a rapidly changing landscape, said speakers on the ‘Cinematic Crossovers’ panel in Red Sea Souk.
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The third edition of the Red Sea Souk, the market arm of the Red Sea Film Festival, awarded its top prize of $100,000 to “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rani Massalha. Another eight feature projects and two TV series were awarded cash and in-kind prizes as part of the Red Souk Awards.
Nick Holdsworth For the producers of an international co-production about Palestinian refugees in Athens the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7 and subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces looked as if it might derail the project.
MBC Studios is developing a series adaptation of popular Saudi writer Osamah Almuslim’s best-selling debut horror novel Khawf (Fear).
Saudi Arabia‘s Red Sea International Film Festival is midway through its third edition, running November 30 to December 9 in the palatial surroundings of the seafront Ritz Carlton in the port city of Jeddah.
Tom Sandoval is spending time with a model!
The Pentagon has said an American warship and multiple commercial ships have come under attack Sunday in the Red Sea.
Ariana Madix is sharing more details about Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss‘ affair.
“The work that exhibitors have done in this market is nothing short of exceptional,” Luke Vetere, Managing Director of Majid Al Futtaim Distribution, one of the largest theatrical distributors in the MENA region, told a crowd of industry figures this morning at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.
Halle Berry and Gwyneth Paltrow are among the high-profile names that have been added to the popular ‘In-Conversation’ sidebar section at the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list of attendees.
Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor The third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, taking place in Jeddah between Nov. 30 – Dec. 9, will be the culmination of a highly successful funding cycle for the Red Sea Film Foundation.