THE RED SEA FILM FOUNDATION ACTIVATES ACROSS VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

The Red Sea Film Foundation (Red Sea FF) has a raft of activity at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with six Red Sea Fund-supported films selected to screen - Aïcha and Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo in Orrizonti and Orrizonte Extra respectively alongside two titles in the Venice Production Bridge’s Final Cut initiative supported by Red Sea FF: Aisha Can't Fly Away Anymore, and In This Darkness I See You. Also selected are two films in the festival’s Giornate delgli Autori competition: Sudan, Remember Us and To Kill A Mongolian Horse. 

Mehdi Barsaoui’s Aïcha is a Tunisian drama feature which won a Red Sea Souk development prize at the 2021 edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival and will now screen in the prestigious Orizzonti section; while Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo, a drama feature by Egyptian director Khaled Mansour that was selected for the Red Sea Lodge development programme in 2021 and gained support from the Red Sea Fund in 2023, premieres in Orrizonti Extra – marking the return of Egyptian cinema to the festival after a decade long hiatus. Also screening in Venice’s Giornate delgli Autori sidebar are two films supported by the Red Sea Fund; Hind Meddeb’s documentary Sudan, Remember Us, and from Northeast Asia, To Kill a Mongolian Horse by Chinese director Xiaoxuan Jiang, competing in the Giornate degli Autori section.

For the third consecutive year, Red Sea FF is partnering with the Final Cut programme in Venice, offering a €5,000 prize for a winning film in its post-production phase. The projects supported through the Final Cut programme are Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can't Fly Away Anymore, which won a Red Sea Souk Production Award in 2022 at the Red Sea International Film Festival, and the Fund-supported Lebanese thriller In This Darkness I See You, directed by Nadim Tabet.

Red Sea FF will also be continuing its support of the Venice Film Festival amfAR Gala as the presenting sponsor for the event for the fourth consecutive year, with Jomana Al-Rashid; Chairwoman of the Red Sea Foundation, chairing the gala amongst other industry leaders including Achille Borolii, Willem Dafoe, Matteo Fantacchiotti, Alejandra Gere, Andrei Gillott, Harry Goodwins, T. Ryan Greenawalt, Lucien Laviscount, Julian Lennon, Tony Mancilla, Kevin Mcclatchy, Catherine O’Hara, Vin Roberti, Caroline Scheufele, David Tait, Emir Uryar and Jon Watts.

Jomana Al-Rashid; Chairwoman of the Red Sea Foundation said: “This year in Venice, the Foundation is supporting six films that demonstrate the importance and power of Arab, Asian and African cinema and encapsulate the pillars of the Foundation – creativity, diversity and cultural exchange. We’re honoured to have played a part in their journey to the festival, as well as to be continuing our partnership with the influential Final Cut programme with two incredible projects from talented filmmakers from across the region. At this year’s festival we are also notably underscoring our expansion to Asia with our support of Chinese director Xiaoxuan Jiang, which marks our first project from the country.” 

Final Cut in Venice is the industry program that has been providing concrete support since 2013 in the completion of films from all African countries and five countries of the Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Final Cut in Venice is one of the projects launched by the Venice Production Bridge of the 81st Venice International Film Festival (August 28th - September 7th 2024), directed by Alberto Barbera and organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The program offers the opportunity to present films still in the production phase to international film professionals, in order to facilitate post-production and film market access.

The program consists of three days of activities (September 1st - 3rd 2024) on the Venice Lido during the 81st Venice Film Festival, in which the working copies of a maximum of six selected films are presented to producers, buyers, distributors and film festival programmers. The Red Sea Film Foundation is a contributing partner in the initiative. 

Since its inception in 2021, the Red Sea fund has backed more than 250 film projects across the Arab world, Africa, and Asia, while also spearheading numerous initiatives aimed at enhancing storytelling and filmmaking in the region.

The third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival will run in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from December 5th - 14th 2024.