Red Sea Film Festival opens fourth edition with star-studded ceremony, awards to Emily Blunt, Vin Diesel, Aamir Khan

Saudi Arabia’s fourth Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) kicked off with a star-studded opening ceremony, including awards for Vin Diesel, Emily Blunt and Indian icon Aamir Khan.

Taking place at the new Cultural Square venue in the historic Al-Balad district, the opening ceremony got underway around 90 minutes late, with weekend traffic in Jeddah causing delays.

Once it began, there were performances of local music and dancing, plus comic banter between hosts, Lebanese-Australian presenter Danielle Rahme and local doctor-turned-filmmaker Hakeem Jomah.

A succession of high-profile international names took the stage to introduce, and receive honorary prizes. Michelle Rodriguez – a regular Red Sea attendee – presented a Special Recognition award to her Fast And Furious series co-star Vin Diesel. “We’ve been creatively in rooms, defending storytelling and defending people with our colour skin and defending the beauty of the streets and of people who don’t necessarily live by the rules of others,” said Rodriguez.

Accepting what he called “this interesting award”, Vin Diesel jokingly questioned whether some of his roles were as “iconic” as RSIFF suggested. “What is so iconic about a tree?” he said, referencing his voice role as Groot in the Guardians Of The Galaxy films. 

With festival jury head Spike Lee also in attendance, Vin Diesel told a story about being an extra on one of Lee’s early films, and hiding from the director, as he had heard “if anyone sees you as an extra, you’ll always be an extra”.

He also noted the starry nature of the evening, saying “there might be more familiar faces here than in some of the awards shows back in America.”

Technical trips

The large-scale opening ceremony, the first in the new venue, experienced a few technical hiccups. The main auditorium at the Cultural Square could not accommodate all the guests, with some required to watch a live-stream of the ceremony from one of two adjacent cinema rooms within the venue, causing some confusion in the Square. 

Guests then watched 90 minutes of red carpet footage and interviews, most conducted in Arabic without translation.

When the ceremony got underway, there were repeated technical issues in the screening room, with sound cutting out and the on-stage presenter autocue scripts appearing on the cinema screen instead of the live feed.

When operational, however, attendees were treated to a succession of international stars. Michelle Yeoh – best actress Oscar winner last year for Everything Everywhere All At Once – presented Mary Poppins Returns star Blunt with her honorary prize. Blunt said she was “very moved; it’s such a pleasure to be here at this vibrant and incredibly dynamic film festival, and it just makes you realise we have so many stories to tell”.

Minnie Driver – an Oscar nominee in 1998 for Good Will Hunting – presented Egyptian actress Mona Zaki with an honorary prize; while Khan received his own award from Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria. Other attendees included Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones, Squid Game star Hoyeon, Yeoh’s Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo and last year’s honoree Will Smith.

The festival also made the unusual choice of announcing its jury during the opening ceremony. Previously confirmed jury president Lee was joined by Egyptian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky, Driver, actor Daniel Dae Kim, and Turkish actress Tuba Buyukustun – the latter of whom Lee accidentally referred to on-stage as “my brother”, not realising Buyukustun is a woman.

“My apologies,” said Lee. “You weren’t dressed like that today when we had breakfast.”

There were also speeches from Jomana Al-Rashid, chairwoman of the Red Sea Foundation; and Shivani Pandya Malhotra, RSIFF managing director.

Malhotra introduced the festival’s opening night film, Karim Shenawi’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family. “This film represents the possibilities of regional collaboration with an Egyptian director, cast from Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as an Egyptian-Saudi Arabian production,” said Malhotra.

The 100-minute film played after the ceremony had finished at 22.20, only just before the opening night party which started at 22.30. This meant most attendees headed to the party straight after the ceremony finished.

The main RSIFF screenings get underway today (Friday, December 6), including the world premiere of UK production My Driver And I from Ahd Kamel; plus seven different in conversation events, including Cynthia Erivo, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Yeoh and Diesel.

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