Several film foundations and agencies have emerged in Saudi Arabia in response to ongoing developments in the arts scene, particularly the film industry.

They now play a role in shaping the industry and helping Saudi Arabia realise its ambition to become one of the key players in the global film scene. One such institution that has gained recognition for its efforts is Film AlUla, established in 2020 by the Royal Commission for AlUla.

This organisation has made substantial progress in supporting and promoting film production and shooting over the past few years, capitalising on its advanced production facilities, financial resources, and the stunning natural locations of AlUla’s landscape serving as the backdrop to high-profile international, regional, and local films.

In November 2023, Film AlUla was officially named one of the primary strategic partners of the Red Sea Film Foundation. This partnership includes sponsorship of awards and grants through the Red Sea Fund and the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF). Through these collaborations, Film AlUla sponsors two major awards at the festival: the Film AlUla Audience Award and the Film AlUla Best Saudi Film Award. Each winner receives a grant of $50,000. This year, the Film AlUla Audience Award went to Little Jaffna, directed by Lawrence Valin, while the Film AlUla Best Saudi Film Award went to Hobal, directed by Abdulaziz Alshlahei, a Saudi-Egyptian co-production.

Film AlUla has also partnered with the Red Sea Fund to offer a production grant to filmmakers with projects set in AlUla, located in northwest Saudi Arabia. This grant is available to both new and experienced filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the Arab region, and Africa. The agency also sponsors The Red Sea Lodge Residency, part of the Red Sea Lab initiative, a 10-month mentorship programme undertaken in collaboration with the Torino Film Lab.

The Lodge programme selects 12 new and exciting film projects to receive guidance and support from industry experts in all areas of filmmaking. At the festival, one of these projects is chosen to receive an award of $200,000 to help kickstart it.

Zaid Shaker, the new acting executive director of Film AlUla, who succeeded Charlene Deleon-Jones, explains that the partnership with the Red Sea Film Fund is a central part of the plans for AlUla. “Our grants through the Red Sea Fund will continue to support filmmakers in the MENA region by providing financial assistance and giving them the opportunity to shoot their projects in AlUla. We also have some exciting upcoming projects in collaboration with studios and production companies that we will announce soon, along with the new studios we’ve built, to open later this year.”

The new studio facilities feature two soundstages, each covering 26,000 square feet, along with a production building that includes hair and makeup rooms, wardrobe areas, office spaces, boardrooms, and dressing rooms. The complex also offers 15,400 square feet of workshops for each soundstage, RV parking spaces, an administration building, a sound recording studio, a kitchen, an event space, and a 61,500-square-foot backlot for temporary infrastructure and set construction.

Recently, Film AlUla expanded its services to include a recording studio, control room, and booths to be used by music artists and choirs for rehearsals and the creation of film scores, music videos, and orchestral works. The agency also has plans to grow its film studio facilities over the next two years.

According to Shaker, one of the agency’s main objectives is to protect and preserve the AlUla region, the home to Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. “Filming in AlUla offers filmmakers financial incentives and access to a wide range of historical sites, untouched nature, different microclimates, and a mild climate that lasts for nine months each year.”

Since its establishment, the film industry in AlUla has started to grow, with both local and international production companies choosing its beautiful landscapes as the setting for upcoming feature films and high-end TV projects.

Among the films shot there is Cherry (2021), directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, starring Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo, and Jack Reynor; the commercial campaign for the House of Dragons TV series (2022); Kandahar (2023),  directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring Gerard Butler; and the American singer and rapper Anderson Paak’s feature debut K-PopS (2024), which was partially shot in AlUla and had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

However, Film AlUla is particularly proud of Norah (2023), directed by Saudi filmmaker Tawfik Alzaidi, starring Yagoub Alfarhan, Maria Bahrawi, and Abdullah Al-Sadhan. This was the first Saudi film to be shot entirely in AlUla, featuring an all-Saudi cast and a crew that was more than 40 per cent Saudi.

Norah had its world premiere at the third Red Sea International Film Festival, where it won the Film AlUla Audience Award. It was also the first Saudi feature film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Un Certain Regard programme, where it was screened on May 23, 2024, and received a special mention.

The film was produced with a fund award from the Daw Film Competition, a project of the Film Commission under the Saudi Ministry of Culture, with support from the Red Sea International Film Festival and Film AlUla.

The AlUla Creates Initiative is another exciting programme launched in 2023 by Film AlUla. It’s a platform made to support up-and-coming female talent in filmmaking and costume design in Saudi Arabia. In its first round, Saudi filmmakers Hana Alfasi, Maram Taibah, Raneem, and Dana Almohandes were selected from over 85 finalists.

These winners had the chance to create 10-minute short films after taking part in workshops in AlUla. A panel, including Saudi director Haifaa Al- Mansour (The Perfect Candidate, Wadjda), James Richardson and Jane Moore from Vertigo Films (Monsters, Britannia, Bronson), and Roua Almadani of Film AlUla, chose the winners. The first part of the mentorship started with a series of workshops in AlUla, led by Haifaa Al- Mansour, James Richardson, and Jane Moore.

These workshops helped the filmmakers turn their ideas into 10-minute films. Each filmmaker received a grant of  $20,000 from Film AlUla. They also worked with Saudi fashion designers Alia and Abeer Olaif of Atelier Hekayat, and Arwa Al-Ammari of ArAm, who were chosen to create costumes that brought their stories to life.

The filmmakers were also given a chance to go to London to explore the international film market. They met with sales, distribution, post-production, and VFX companies. Each filmmaker received support for submissions to local and international film festivals. The three film projects were finished and selected to be shown at the third Red Sea International Film Festival. Mosquito, an animated film written and directed by sisters Raneem and Dana Almohandes, and When the Shelves Hymn directed by Hana Alfasi, were part of the non-competitive programme New Saudi New Cinema. Meanwhile, Malika, written and directed by Maram Taibah, was featured in the Red Sea Shorts Competition.

Mosquito is set in 1969 in the stunning landscape of AlUla, where a small mosquito named Zozo has big dreams that make her different from the other mosquitoes. While the rest of her kind are happy with their everyday lives, Zozo wants more. She dreams of becoming a singer, but not just any singer — she wants to be as famous as Um Kulthum. The film tells the story of her journey to make that dream come true.

In When the Shelves Hymn, Mariam’s husband disappears, forcing her to move with her son Said to AlUla. While trying to sell their family shop, Mariam finds unpaid bills, a video diary revealing her husband’s depression, and newspaper clippings about suicide. This discovery challenges her beliefs about men, and together with Saeed, they begin a new, independent life.

Malika is about Salma, a young girl who cuts her own hair, angering her mother. She seeks comfort with her sick grandmother, who tells her stories of once being a queen. Believing finding the lost crown will help her grandmother, Salma embarks on magical adventures, learning what it means to be a queen.

Mahsa Motamedi, the marketing director of Film AlUla, said the experience was very rewarding. “Not only were the films completed and shown at the Red Sea International Film Festival, but the success of the initiative felt like an important step in understanding how it will grow in the future. We’ve seen so many positive results. The first edition of the initiative showed us how crucial it is, not only for discovering new female talent in Saudi Arabia, but also for providing them with the technical, artistic and knowledge-based support they need through Film AlUla. The agency offers all the resources needed to make high-quality films that can compete globally. Plus, it takes advantage of AlUla’s stunning locations to create films that have local depth while also appealing to international audiences.” Motamedi added that involving a mix of emerging talent and established fashion designers in film costume design has made them more aware of the importance of focusing on technical aspects of filmmaking, not just directing and writing. “We’re definitely planning future programmes that will include costume design training alongside film programmes.”

Abeer and Alia Olaif, who were costume designers for the film projects, said that as established fashion designers, they had a unique chance to work in filmmaking for the first time. This was a major change in their perspective. Abeer explained that the choice of costume designers for the initiative was based on more than just fashion skills. It was also about having the imagination to tell stories through fashion. “Our foundation, Atelier Hekayat, was created years ago with the idea of telling stories through clothes. We create characters and design costumes based on each new story those characters experience. So working on a film felt like something we were naturally meant to do. I’m sure costume design will be part of our next steps. We loved the experience.”

Raneem and Dana Almohandes, the writers and directors of Mosquito, are also part of the AlUla Creates Initiative. Raneem has a master’s degree in fine arts with a focus on musical theatre, and Dana is studying filmmaking and animation. Their musical short film Swing was chosen for the Saudi presentation at Cannes in 2022 and was later bought by Netflix. Their musical Upwards, Saudi Arabia’s first theatrical musical, was staged earlier this year in Riyadh.

Raneem and Dana say participating in the AlUla Creates Initiative was a turning point in their filmmaking journey. “We felt like all our dreams were possible. Animation wasn’t part of the competition at first, but when we asked to make an animated film, we were welcomed with open arms. We also realised how we could use AlUla’s beautiful nature as part of our film. We were given the chance to spend time exploring the area and looking for places that could work for our mosquito family, the main characters in our film. We filmed the locations from the perspective of a flying mosquito using a drone. We were thrilled when we found a cave that looked exactly like the home we had imagined for the mosquito. We turned all the footage we shot into sketches, which became the world our animated film is set in. It was an amazing, enriching experience, and definitely a great step forward for our future.”

* A version of this article appears in print in the 19 December, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly