The Red Sea International Film Festival (RIFF) has partnered with the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) to give the opportunity to a team of Arab filmmakers attending the Cairo Film Connection to participate in the inaugural Red Sea Souk.

Red Sea Souk, an international industry market taking place in Jeddah, will hold the first edition of its Project Market, on 13-16 March, where a selection of 20 projects by Arab filmmakers "will be pitched by teams of director and producer," as the RIFF stated.

"The pitching session will be followed by three days of one-on-one meetings with the industry participants. We have already revealed 12 exciting projects which are being intensively developed until next March within the Red Sea Lodge in collaboration with the TorinoFilmLab.

"The partnership between the Red Sea International Film Festival and Cairo International Film Festival is an acknowledgement of their shared aim in supporting a new and exciting generation of Arab filmmakers.

"Eight more projects will be invited to the souk's project market. Among them will be the winner of the Red Sea Film Festival Award. The award will be granted to a project in the Cairo Film Connection."









The Red Sea Souk will invite the director and producer of the winning project to participate in the upcoming edition. The winning project will be announced at the closing ceremony of the Cairo Film Connection on Tuesday 26 November.

The Red Sea Film Festival Foundation is the first Saudi, independent, non-profit organisation with an official mandate to promote film culture.

As part of the Cairo Industry Days, Cairo Film Connection is a space for Arab filmmakers to initiate connections and receive the support they need to bring their films to completion.

The current edition of the CIFF, named after its late artistic director Youssef Sherif Rizkallah, is running until 29 November with a number of activities being held, including the screening of 153 films from 63 countries.

Projects competing in the Cairo Film Connection:

Fiction in post-production
About Her, Islam El Azzazi (Egypt)
Europa, Haider Rashid (Italy/ Iraq)
Fragile, Ahmed Rashwan (Egypt)


Fiction in development
A House For Expats, Naji Ismail (Egypt)
Leila and I, Maggie Morgan (Egypt)
Shameem, Karim Rahbani (Lebanon)
The Land Beyond, Nadine Salib (Egypt)
The Station, Sara Ishaq (Yemen/ Jordan)
Under construction, Nadim Tabet (Lebanon)

Documentaries in development
Big Boys Don’t Cry, Muhammad Mustapha (Egypt/ Germany)
On the Trail of Yamile, Fatma Racha Shehadeh (Lebanon/ France)
The Life and Times of Omar Sharif, Mark Lotfy and Axel Petersen (Egypt/ Sweden)

Documentaries in post-production
Displaced in Heaven, Khaled Jarrar (Palestine/ Germany)
Home There Cinema Here, Nidal al Dibs (Egypt/ Syria)
The Disqualified, Hamza Ouni (Tunisia/ France)
We Are From There, Wissam Tanios (Lebanon)

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