Twelve rising filmmakers are vying to be among the four picked to share Red Sea Lodge’s $180,000 prize pool, including two submissions from Asia for the first time.
Twelve up-and-coming filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab region, Africa and Asia arrive in Jeddah this week for the final stage of the Red Sea Lodge residency programme. After a 10-month development journey of workshops and mentorship, the directors will now be pitching their projects at the Red Sea Souk.
Those taking part include Tarfaya, French-Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui’s follow-up to her Sundance special jury prize winner Animalia; Kenyan writer/director Omar Hamza’s third feature Manjano; and Saudi actress-turned-filmmaker Lana Komsany’s I Didn’t Sign Up For This, her directorial debut.
The filmmakers will pitch on Saturday, December 7 at the Souk, “where the filmmakers and experts can engage in more intimate discussions”, says Ryan Ashore, head of Red Sea Labs.
Held in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab and supported by Film AlUla, the Lodge’s four winning projects will share a prize pool of $180,000, down from $200,000 last year. The programme is designed to support film projects at every stage of development.
The Lodge opened to African projects in 2023, and this year extends its reach by including two projects from Asia for the first time. “Filmmakers learn a lot from each other,” says Ashore of the commitment to bring together diverse cultures and stories. “The Lodge aims to give voice to the people who are [otherwise] unable to make their films.”
Over the past five years, that approach has led to 59 features being developed, many of which have won international acclaim. Success stories include Arzé by Lebanon’s Mira Shaib, which won prizes at Cairo and the Asian World Film Festival this year, and Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away, which received the La Biennale di Venezia prize in the Italian festival’s Final Cut programme in September.
Notably, Seeking Haven For Mr. Rambo by Egypt’s Khaled Mansour premiered in Venice, and now returns to Jeddah to play Red Sea’s official competition.
Meet the twelve Red Sea Lodge 2024 Projects
Assa, A Fish In A Bowl (Leb-Fr-Den)
Dir/scr. Dahlia Nemlich
Prod. Marine Vaillant
Set in Beirut, this social drama follows an Ethiopian woman working as a live-in maid who faces a crisis when her son goes missing back home and she is trapped without access to her passport. It marks the feature directorial debut of French-Lebanese Nemlich, whose 2022 short Roadblock competed in El Gouna. Assa participated in the LIM residency (Le Groupe Ouest) in 2022 and LabMed (Meditalent) in 2023, and won an Ambient Light grant at CineGouna Platform in 2023.
Blue Card (Sudan-Egy)
Dir Mohammed Alomda
Scr Paula Tadros
Prod Amjad Abu Alala
Sudanese filmmaker Alomda is known as the producer of award-winning films You Will Die At Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala (who produces here), The Burdened by Amr Gamal and Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani. Blue Card marks his directorial debut, and follows a Sudanese man who leaves his family behind and travels to Cairo to start a new life. The project is produced by Khartoum-based Station Films Cinema Production Co and was this year selected for the Chabaka workshop at JCC Carthage Film Festival.
Close Rose Close (Saudi)
Dir/scr Rulan Hasan
Prod Fahad Samman
Saudi Arabia’s Hasan has built a career as a writer, working on the likes of Netflix Original series Whispers (2020) and Mansour Assad’s feature Slave, winner of best script, best editing and best film at Saudi Film Festival in 2023. Her feature directorial debut Close Rose Close is a psychological drama that follows a newlywed haunted by past trauma, and is produced by Hasan’s own Jeddah-based Righters House.
Hadd (Saudi)
Dir Jamal Kutbi
Scr Mohammed Juayd
Prod Abdulrahman Alkilany
Set in southern Saudi Arabia, this drama is produced by Istanbul’s FishEye Films and follows family man Saeed, who is preparing for his daughter’s wedding when his only son is killed in a fight with a member of the groom’s tribe. Tensions rise further when Saeed refuses to accept so-called ‘blood money’ in return for forgiveness. Kutbi’s short documentary Khaled El-Sheikh: Between The Thorns Of Art And Politics premiered at Red Sea in 2023.
I Didn’t Sign Up For This (Saudi)
Dir/scr Lana Komsany
Prod/scr Hadeel Moharram
Saudi actress-turned-filmmaker Komsany began her career in theatre, and has also starred in Saudi productions including the series Jameel Jedan and portmanteau feature Becoming. Her directorial debut I Didn’t Sign Up For This is the story of a single mother who reaches breaking point when her sister returns to France and her nanny departs. It is produced by Jeddah-based Rose Panthera.
I’ll Smile In September (India-Sing)
Dir/scr Aakash Chhabra
Prods Sanjay Gulati, Fran Borgia
The feature debut of Panipat-based short filmmaker Chhabra follows a 22-year-old brass-band player in Old Delhi who, after suffering heartbreak and being kicked out of the ensemble, moves back to his hometown. The project is produced by Delhi’s Crawling Angel Films and Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia, and won the Cineuropa, A Journey To Europe screenwriting competition in 2021. It was developed at Produire au Sud in Nantes in 2022, selected for Busan’s Asian Project Market in 2023 and won an MPA award at the Chanel x BIFF Asian Film Academy.
Jaysan (Kyrgyz Rep)
Dir Aisha Sultanbekova
Scr Asel Imankulova Myrzabaeva
Prod Saltanat Imankulova
This coming-of-age story about a six-year-old city boy who moves to his grandparents’ house in a village emptied by labour migration is the feature debut of Kyrgyz filmmaker Sultanbekova. Produced by Bishkek-based Koyon Media, the project participated in 2023’s Biennale College Cinema and was selected for this year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market. Sultanbekova’s short documentaries Golden Moon (2023) and Ad Astra (2018) both played the festival circuit.
Manjano (Kenya)
Dir/scr Omar Hamza
Prod June Wairegi
Action comedy Manjano is Hamza’s third feature project after Rishai (2022) and Half Open Window (2022), the latter of which won best East African feature at Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2023. A young man organises a heist in order to fund his elopement with a woman who is promised to someone else. As with his previous features, Hamza produces through his Nairobi-based Giza Visuals.
Pepo Kali (Kenya)
Dir/scr Lydia Matata
Prod/scr Debra Aroko
Winner of the 2021 best emerging filmmaker award at the UN Women Global Voices Film Festival for doc short Utapata Mwingine, Kenyan filmmaker Matata will make her feature debut with this Nairobi-set drama. A grieving mother learns to ride a motorbike after the death of her daughter, the co-founder of an all-female bikers’ club. Pepo Kali is produced by Nairobi-based The Ololokwe Movie Company, and took part in 2023’s Great Lakes Producers Lab. Matata’s short Sungura screened at the Pan African Film Festival in 2021, and won the best women in film award at Blackstar International Film Festival.
The Silent Ones (Fr-Mor)
Dir/scr Jawahine Zentar
Prods Fabrice Préel-Cléach, Emmanuelle Latourrette
French-Moroccan filmmaker Zentar’s feature debut follows a mother and son on a journey from Paris to Morocco to uncover the mystery of the boy’s terrifying nightmares. It is produced by Paris-based Offshore. Zentar’s short On My Father’s Grave screened in festivals including Clermont-Ferrand, Tangier and Palm Springs, and received the Golden Yusr at Red Sea in 2022.
Tarfaya (Mor-Fr-Belg)
Dir/Scr/Prod Sofia Alaoui
Prods Meryem Hamdi, Margaux Lorier
French-Moroccan filmmaker Alaoui’s feature debut Animalia won a special jury prize for creative vision at Sundance in 2023, and went on to screen at major festivals. She was named as a Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow that year, and was one of Unifrance’s 10 Talents To Watch in 2024. Her follow-up Tarfaya is a futuristic medical drama set in the titular remote Moroccan town, as residents fall into an unexplained deep sleep. The film was developed at the Cannes Residence programme, and is produced by Casablanca-based Jiango Films.
Terbakar (Indo-Sing)
Dir/scr Shelby Kho
Prod Si En Tan
Magical-realist drama Terbakar follows a 16-year-old girl as she navigates the aftermath of her sister’s suicide against the backdrop of her superstitious village. Indonesian filmmaker Kho, who resides in Singapore, has written and directed short films including Ocean, which premiered at Singapore International Film Festival in 2023. Her feature directorial debut is produced by Singapore’s Momo Film Co, and received the most promising project award at Singapore 2023’s Southeast Asian Film Lab.
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