Visitors to the Red Sea Souk, the film market at Red Sea International Film Festival, will notice quite a few changes this year. The most obvious will be the event’s new home in a purpose-built venue in Al-Balad in the old town of Jeddah, a 10-minute walk from the festival’s new base in Cultural Square.
For industry executives, it means most of the festival will all be in walking distance. They will be able to take meetings in the Souk and attend screenings at Cultural Square. This is a big change from the past two editions, when the Souk took place at the lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel, while screenings were held a 20- minute drive away at the Vox Cinemas multiplex.
Red Sea Souk also has a new director, Holly Daniel. The former head of industry and talent development at Edinburgh International Film Festival took over the full-time role in February, having worked for the Souk last year on a temporary contract. It is something of a change for Daniel, who spent more than 15 years at Edinburgh.
“For such a new festival, Red Sea has got such ambition, drive and positivity,” she says about her time at the festival. “It’s very exciting too because the industry is relatively nascent as well. It’s also a bit warmer than Edinburgh!”
Daniel says she has found Red Sea an inspiring place to work. “I came over for the first time last year and there was this relatively young, enthusiastic team of colleagues and filmmakers who are working towards creating this new festival and new market,” she says.
Another key change for 2024 is that the Souk has expanded its traditional focus from the Arab world and Africa to also include Asia — in line with the festival’s main Competition, which also programmes Asian films. Daniel explains the market aims to offer “something for people at every level of experience” in the film industry.
Growing profile
The Souk is based around the exhibition hall, which is focused on business exchange and networking, particularly within the Middle East. There will be 74 stands this year, up from 65 last year. “We are growing, little by little, each year,” says Daniel. “Each year, people come and see what we are doing, then they come back the following year and take a booth themselves.”
Additions for 2024 include pavilions from Africa, Thailand and India. There are currently few sales agents exhibiting in the Souk but, says Daniel, “we have got lots of individuals coming from sales companies — we are still building, from the exhibition side, that sales representation in the market. We’re getting more interest every year.”
The Souk also offers a programme of panels, interviews and masterclasses, which this year will be organised in collaboration with CAA Media Finance for the first time. Speakers include FilmNation CEO Glen Basner and Fremantle COO of global drama Seb Shorr.
One of its flagship initiatives is the Souk Project Market, which will showcase 38 feature film and television projects, either in development or as works-in-progress, to potential investors. It is the biggest number of projects ever presented at the Souk. Some have come through the Red Sea Labs initiative via its Lodge development programme in partnership with TorinoFilmLab, or through the SeriesLab development programme in collaboration with Film Independent.
Among this year’s Project Market titles is Holy Cow, the debut fiction feature of Moroccan filmmaker director prize at Cannes last year with documentary The Mother Of All Lies. Nigerian filmmaker CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi also participates with La Pyramide, a follow-up to his 2023 thriller Mami Wata which played at Sundance and was Nigeria’s entry for the Academy Awards. So too does Kenya’s Omar Hamza with his Red Sea Lodge project Manjano.
Daniel points out that 28% of the projects come from Asia this year, with titles from Pakistan, Indonesia, India and Taiwan, among others. “It means we’ve got a much more diverse mix of projects to present.”
In just four years, the Project Market already has a number of success stories to its name. Among them is Mahdi Fleifel’s Palestinian drama To A Land Unknown, which was first presented in 2022 and returned as a work-in-progress last year before premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight; it is playing in Red Sea’s selection this year.
Natural progression
The Project Market has different selection committees and reader pools to sister funding organisation the Red Sea Fund, but projects do move between the two.
“We don’t actively look at the same projects but there is a very natural progression either way,” says Daniel. “Maybe they come to the Souk first, then to the Fund, or vice versa.” Some 500 projects in development applied to be part of the Project Market this year.
Daniel’s Souk team numbers around 20 in the immediate build-up to the festival, and three people full time during the year. The executive spends her time moving back and forth between home in the UK and Saudi Arabia, while also attending international festivals. “There’s definitely a little more travelling than I am used to,” she says.
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