VENICE: The Red Sea Film Foundation will light up this year’s Venice Film Festival with four Red Sea Fund-supported productions selected for screening.
The RSFF-backed films “Aïcha” and “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo” will screen in the Orizzonti and Orizzonti Extra selections respectively.
This is alongside two titles in the Venice Production Bridge’s Final Cut initiative supported by the Red Sea Fund: “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore” and “In This Darkness I See You.”
Also screening in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori sidebar are two films supported by the Red Sea Fund: Hind Meddeb’s documentary “Sudan, Remember Us,” and from Northeast Asia “To Kill a Mongolian Horse” by Chinese director Xiaoxuan Jiang.
Mehdi Barsaoui’s “Aïcha” is a Tunisian drama feature which won a Red Sea Souk development prize at the 2021 edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival and will now screen in the prestigious Orizzonti section.
The production, “Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo,” is a drama feature by Egyptian director Khaled Mansour that was selected for the Red Sea Lodge development program in 2021.
It gained support from the Red Sea Fund in 2023 and premieres in the Orizzonti Extra section — marking the return of Egyptian cinema to the festival after a decade-long hiatus.
For the third consecutive year, the RSFF is partnering with the Final Cut program in Venice, offering a €5,000 prize ($5.538) for a winning film in its post-production phase.
The projects supported through the Final Cut program are Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s “Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore,” which won a Red Sea Souk Production Award in 2022 at the Red Sea International Film Festival; and the Lebanese thriller “In This Darkness I See You,” directed by Nadim Tabet.
The RSFF will be continuing its support of the Venice Film Festival amfAR Gala as the presenting sponsor for the fourth consecutive year.
Jomana Alrashid, Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation and Giuseppe Tornatore, Red Sea International Film Festival 21 jury president. (Instagram)
Jomana Al-Rashid, chairwoman of the RSFF, will chair the gala.
Among the industry leaders and celebrities expected to attend are Achille Boroli, Willem Dafoe, Matteo Fantacchiotti, Alejandra Gere, Andrei Gillott, Harry Goodwins, T. Ryan Greenawalt and Lucien Laviscount.
In addition, Julian Lennon, Tony Mancilla, Kevin Mcclatchy, Catherine O’Hara, Vin Roberti, Caroline Scheufele, David Tait, Emir Uryar and Jon Watts will be present.
Al-Rashid said: “This year in Venice, the Foundation is supporting four films that demonstrate the importance and power of Arab, Asian and African cinema and encapsulate the pillars of the Foundation — creativity, diversity and cultural exchange.
“We’re honored to have played a part in their journey to the festival, as well as to be continuing our partnership with the influential Final Cut program with two incredible projects from talented filmmakers from across the region.
“At this year’s festival we are also notably underscoring our expansion to Asia with our support of Chinese director Xiaoxuan Jiang, which marks our first project from the country.”
The Final Cut in Venice program has been providing support since 2013 for films from African countries. It has also backed productions from five Middle East nations: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
This is one of the projects launched by the Venice Production Bridge of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by La Biennale di Venezia.
The program offers the opportunity to present films still in the production phase to international professionals, in order to facilitate post-production and market access.
The program consists of three days of activities (Sept. 1 to 3) on the Venice Lido, in which the working copies of a maximum of four selected films are presented to producers, buyers, distributors and festival programmers.
The Red Sea Film Foundation is a contributing partner in the initiative.
Since its inception in 2021, the Red Sea Fund has backed more than 250 film projects across the Arab world, Africa and Asia, while also spearheading numerous initiatives aimed at enhancing storytelling and filmmaking in the region.
The third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival will run in Jeddah from Dec. 5 to 14.
