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18.01.2023 - 22:25 / deadline.com
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 boardedFrench director Maïwenn’s upcoming costume drama Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp, in its first European investment as executive producer.
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
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The Red Sea International Film Festival has announced its foundation is getting behind French director Maïwenn’s period drama Jeanne du Barry, in which she co-stars as the titular 18th Century courtesan Madame du Barry opposite Johnny Depp as King Louis XV.