Anna Kendrick & Ewan McGregor Pictures Head To Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Fest As New Round Of Selected Films Announced
Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman Of The Hour and family drama Mother Couch, starring Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, are headed to the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, running from November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.
The titles will play in the Festival Favorites sidebar which was announced on Thursday alongside the event’s Red Sea: Treasures strand.
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Kendrick directs and stars in Netflix-acquired drama Woman Of The Hour as a woman whose path crosses notorious serial killer Rodney Alcala, whilst in Niclas Larsson’s first film Mother Couch, McGregor plays a man whose mother squats the family furniture store.
Further films in the line-up – showcasing 21 buzzy festival titles from the last 12 months – include the David Oyelowo produced documentary Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story; Women’s World Cup doc Copa 71, executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, Jennifer Esposito’s Fresh Kills, Laetitia Colombani’s The Braid and Asmae El Moudi’s documentary’s Mother of All Lies, which is Morocco’s Oscar entry this year. (scroll down for full list of films)
“These are powerful stories that stay with you long after the films have ended, and expertly make use of the medium of cinema to surprise, start conversations, and engage viewers,” said Kaleem Aftab, Director of International Programming for the Red Sea International Film Festival.
The festival also unveiled its Red Sea: Treasures strand featuring seven classic cinema titles, many of which are screening for the first time in Saudi Arabia on newly restored prints.
They include Egyptian classics Victory Of Youth, starring Farid Al Atrash and Asmahan, and My Wife’s Goblin, with Shadia and Salah Zulfiqar. They have been restored and are showing at the festival thanks to a partnership withEgyptian Media Production City.
The other titles comprise a new 4K version of Fatih Akin’s music documentary about the changing music scene in Turkey, Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul; Jacques Demy’s musical comedy Les Demoiselles De Rochefort; Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God, and Lost In La Mancha (2002) and He Dreams Of Giants (2019) by directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, which chronicle Terry Gilliam’s decades-long journey to making The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
“Once again, we have unearthed some very special titles to present which celebrate many eras and genres in cinema, and we look forward to both welcoming existing fans of the titles and creating new ones,” said Antoine Khalife, Director of Arab Programmes and Film Classics.
The newly-announced movies join another 30 features selected for the Red Sea’s Special Screenings, Main Competition, aimed at Arab, African and Asian cinema, and Arab Spectacular sidebars, which were announced on Monday.
That announcement dispelled questions over whether the event would be cancelled due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, sparked by the latter’s terror attacks on Southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 hostages were taken.
A number of film festivals in the Middle East and North Africa have abandoned their 2023 fall editions in recent weeks out of solidarity for the population of Gaza, where more than 10,300 people have been killed by Israel’s retaliatory military campaign aimed at eradicating Hamas and bringing home the hostages.
For now, the RSIFF management team, led by Mohammed Al-Turki, CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation and festival MD Shivani Pandya Malhotra, has yet to make any official statement about their decision to maintain the edition, letting the selection speak for itself instead.
All the films in the Festival Favorites Sidebar
ALLIHOPA: THE DALKURD STORY
Dir. Kordo Doski
Iraq, Sweden, United States of America (USA), and CanadaANIMALIA
Dir. Sofia Alaoui
MorrocoCOPA 71
Dir. Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
United KingdomDANCE FIRST
Dir. James Marsh
United Kingdom, Hungary, and BelgiumFRESH KILLS
Dir. Jennifer Esposito
United States of America (USA)HESITATION WOUND
Dir. Selman Nacar
Turkey, France, Romania, and SpainHOPELESS
Dir. Kim Chang-hoon
South KoreaHOUNDS
Dir. Kamal Lazraq
MorrocoMARS EXPRESS
Dir. Jérémie Périn
FranceMOTHER COUCH
Dir. Niclas Larsson
United States of America (USA)MOTHER OF ALL LIES
Dir. Asmae El Moudir
MoroccoSNOW IN MIDSUMMER
Dir. Keat Aun Chong
Malaysia, Taiwan, R.O.C and SingaporeTHE BRAID
Dir. Laetitia Colombani
FranceTHE DELINQUENTS
Dir. Rodrigo Moreno
Argentina, Brazil, Luxembourg, and ChileTHIIIRD
Dir. Karim Kassem
LebanonTHE LAST SNOW
Dir. Amir Hossein Asgari
IranTHE UNIVERSAL THEORY
Dir. Timm Kröger
Germany, Austria, and SwitzerlandWOMAN OF THE HOUR
Dir. Anna Kendrick
United States of America (USA)24 HOURS WITH GASPAR
Dir. Yosep Anggi Noen
IndonesiaLOST LADIES (LAAPATAA LADIES)
Dir Kiran Rao
IndiaRANSOMED
Dir Seong Hun Kim
South Korea
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