The Red Sea Film Festival is currently taking place in the heart of Jeddah. Amongst a plethora of things that happen every day at the festival, here are some highlights that stood out!
There was a time when Saudi Arabia had a ban on cinema and then there’s today, half a decade later, when the country is hosting its fourth edition of the largest film festival that takes place in the middle east. The Red Sea Film Festival brings together the best actors and filmmakers from around the world to honor cinema, actors and craftsmen who have immensely contributed to cinema. And also for insightful ‘in conversation with’ panels. The festival started on December 5 and will be going on till December 12. It is taking place in Jeddah’s Al- Balad heritage district which is an UNESCO world heritage site. This year the theme was ‘new home of film’. The festival had quite a lot of popular Indian faces who have helped put Bollywood on the global stage.
Here’s how it brought an Indian flavour to it this year!
Honorary Awards
Red Sea Film Festival kickstarted by honoring Aamir Khan for making an impact on the global film industry. He was given the award by Hollywood actress Eva Longoria who we’ve known from Desperate Housewives and the recent season of Only Murders in the Building. In her tribute speech to Aamir Khan, she mentioned how Lagaan was the only Indian film to be nominated for an Oscar and how his film 3 Idiots impacted her own life. In his acceptance speech, Aamir Khan reflected on the past 30 years of his career and how it made him super nervous before starting each film.
Special mentions: Vin Diesel and Emily Blunt were also felicitated by the festival for their vast filmography. Emily Blunt spoke about the lessons she learnt from her career, her new project with Steven Spielberg and how the films that are being showcased at the festival highlight diversity in cinema.
Apart from the movies and star studded awards night, the festival is also popularly known for its ‘In Conversation With’ panels. This year, the line up is one for the books to say the least. Each and every one of the speakers is an award winning actor or director. This year, five Bollywood actors were in the line up for conducting their own panel. It started with Aamir Khan, followed by Kareena Kapoor Khan over the weekend.
Kareena Kapoor Khan spoke about how she loves what she does for a living. She said how her work feels like oxygen to her simply because she cannot imagine doing anything else but be in front of the camera. She also mentioned how it’s a great time for women in cinema. How stories are now written surrounding the female characters and there’s so much for them to experiment with now. Her advice to aspiring actors in the audience was to ‘follow their heart’.
Aamir Khan shared anecdotes from the making of Lagaan and how he was initially hesitant to do the film. He had seen his dad go through failure in the industry and he did not wish to go through the same, but overtime he learnt that if he wants to do great films, he would have to take risks.
Ranbir Kapoor remembered his father Rishi Kapoor’s legacy during his panel. He also spoke about how he feels immensely grateful to portray Lord Rama in his next film Ramayana. He mentioned that he has finished filming for Part 1 and will soon begin shooting for Part 2.
Shraddha Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra Jonas will also be conducting their respective panels at the Red Sea Film Festival this week.
Special mentions: Other popular Hollywood faces who also had their own panels were Emily Blunt, Academy Award winners Michelle Yeoh, Viola Davis and Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Jessica Parker, Andrew Garfield, Olivia Wilde, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and recent ‘Wicked’ fame Cynthia Erivo were also amongst the few who shared their insights on cinema, and the lagacies that they have built so far!
‘Superboys of Malegaon’ directed by Reema Kagti and produced by Excel Entertainment will be screened at the festival this year. This film is about amateur filmmakers in Maharashtra. The cast and crew of the film were seen on the red carpet. Farhan Akhtar also mentioned to the media about how proud he is to screen the film at the prestigious festival.
‘Santosh’ by Indian-British filmmaker Sandhya Suri, which is based on caste and religious divide in rural India, premiered at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, and is part of the ‘Festival Favourites’ section at the Red Sea.
Nails by Triparna Banerjee starring Anjali Patil and Riza Reji (a model, dancer, actor with down syndrome) will be competing at the festival this year. It is a 15 minute horror film about two sisters. There is more to their seemingly ordinary lives as both of them have survived abuse.
‘I”ll Smile in September’, a feature film project in development set in Old Delhi and Dehradun, made by debutant director Akash Chhabra is among the new ventures aiming for co-production possibilities at the festival’s Red Sea Lodge film market, which was opened to filmmakers and producers from the whole of Asia this year.
The Red Sea film market’s series lab programme for new projects in television series, which is in its second edition this year, has two ventures from India– ‘Cold Case One’ (Pullukandam Murder Case), a Malayalam language series co-written by filmmakers Nithin Lukose and Hari Krishnan. Set in Kerala, ‘Cold Case One’ tells the story of two police officers struggling to solve a 30-year-old murder case of a man allegedly killed by his children for his wealth. The second series is the Hindi language ‘Shani Bazaar’ by Karan Kabir and Nitin Koul. ‘Shani Bazaar’, which is set in a village in North India, is about an upper-caste man forced to become a manual scavenger.
Which is your favorite moment from the festival? Let us know in the comments below!
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