Riyadh: Less than four years after lifting cinema prohibitions, Saudi Arabia is hosting his first main film festival from Monday when observing a profitable new industry.
Film houses were banned for decades until April 2018, but for the next 10 days, actors and directors would step on the red carpet at the Jeddah Red International Film Festival.
The festival began a day after Jeddah held Formula One Formula One Grand Prix, also an effort to describe Saudi Arabia with different light.
It will display 138 long and short films from 67 countries in more than 30 languages.
Among them is the “Gang-Gang” Jordan, which was directed by Bassel Ghandour, and non-Arabic films including “Cyrano” Joe Wright and “’83”, the victory of the World Cup Cricket India 1983.
The festival is also expected to respect Haifa Al-Mansour, Director of the First Female Saudi, who shot “Wadjda” in 2012, a winner of a number of international awards.
The emergence of the ruler of De Facto Saudi Arabia, Mohammed son of Salman’s Crown Prince, in 2017 has delivered a number of reforms.
“The thought of holding a film festival in Saudi Arabia was unimaginable only five years ago,” said Egyptian art critics Mohamed Abdel Rahman.
The festival also looked at the developing market for photographing and consuming films in Saudi Arabia.
The annual Annual Office of Saudi Arabia can reach $ 950 million in 2030, according to a report by the PWC multinational accounting company.
This estimates the royal forecast population of almost 40 million can absorb up to 2,600 cinema screens.
Social shifting within the Conservative Gulf Country has included the removal of the ban that drives and allows gender mixed concerts and other events, even as a strict demonstration in imprisonment.
“Before the cinema reopened in 2018, this industry worked underground,” said Saudi Director Ahmed Al-Mulla, who has run the Saudi Film annual Festival in Dammam Eastern City since 2008.
“There is no ability to film or get financing.
All depends on Individual efforts.
“However, industrial observers said the Saudi film sector was still lacking skills, and investment.
But some big projects now come true.
MBC Studios, Arm Production Arm of the Arab Media Media MBC Group owned by Saudi, online in 2018 with a large budget.
Currently recording the “Desert Warrior” action film in the Neom region, also in the Red Sea.
But it’s not just about a big budget, Al-Mulla said.
Cinema needs “High standard freedom of expression …
from displaying women to freedom to handle various topics”, he said.
“The cinema is a soft force that can pave the way for the success of the ongoing social and economic change (in the kingdom).” Saudi Arabia for decades has a strict interpretation of Islam and despite modernizing drives, social restrictions remain exist.
“The cinema is not only art but needs to be transformed into a culture in Saudi Arabia,” Al-Mulla said.