CANNES: AlUla’s natural landscapes are fast becoming a national icon for Saudi Arabia, attracting tourists who wish to experience the scenes for themselves. But since the inception of Film AlUla, the region’s film agency, its sand dunes and historic landmarks have traveled the world through cinema.
As Film AlUla celebrates its fifth anniversary, Acting Executive Director Zaid Shaker sat down with Arab News to discuss the entity’s milestones on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival in France.
“I think that our voice and our positioning (of) Film AlUla as a catalyst in the Saudi film industry has sort of echoed, and now we have amazing infrastructure,” Shaker said.
Only seven years ago, cinemas reopened in the Kingdom after a 35-year ban. The establishment of Film AlUla in early 2020, under the mandate of the Royal Commission of AlUla, has played a hand in cementing Saudi Arabia’s role in the international film industry.
One of Film AlUla’s headlining achievements is Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah,” released in 2023, which became the first Saudi feature film to premiere at Cannes. The film, which followed the story of a young girl in the 1990s with a thirst for artistic expression, featured a crew made up of 40 percent AlUla locals.
This year, first-time director Osama Al Khurayji’s “Siwar” was the opener for the Saudi Film Festival, held at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran in April. The film follows two families, one Saudi and one Turkish, as they navigate societal challenges and personal upheavals. Here, AlUla acts as a stand in for the southern city of Najran and the shoot featured an 80 percent local crew.
Film AlUla executives have long emphasized training the local community as part of their core mission.
The area is home to roughly 65,000 residents, the executive said, and one of the core factors to creating a sustainable film sector is establishing a well-trained local crew. This is done through training programs for capacity-building and skill refinement.
“Whenever we work on attracting an international production, our organic by-product is sort of upskilling the locals so that they can take this forward and start narrating their own stories,” Shaker said.
The entity recently announced a partnership with Manhattan Beach Studios, which operates more than 600 sound stages around the globe, as operators for their local facilities.
“We try to do everything looking at very high quality and the highest of standards… In partnering with MB Studios to manage our cutting-edge, state-of-the-art facilities, we are showing commitment locally, regionally and internationally, that our positioning is real, and that we offer a seamless, advanced experience to every storyteller that comes to AlUla,” Shaker said.
Some of the first major Hollywood productions to shoot in the region were Anthony and Joe Russo’s drama “Cherry,” and Ric Roman Waugh’s “Kandahar,” and others followed. In 2024 alone, AlUla hosted 85 projects, ranging from films and TV series to commercials and music videos.
These productions are largely incentivized by the country’s rebates policies, operated under the umbrella of the Saudi Film Commission and the National Rebate Fund.
“We offer 40 percent rebates and an uplift of 10 percent incentives, which are usually designed based on training programs and marketing efforts,” he said.
This rebate can be elevated to 50 percent when Saudi nationals are employed in key roles within the production.
“AlUla is blessed with a vast, diverse collection of amazing locations. It’s awe inspiring — it’s a cinematic wonder in itself. So part of the attraction and work in bringing productions and building a film sector relies on the sense of location,” Shaker said.
“It’s building on this amazing backdrop, which spans, in its history, more than 200,000 years. The … location has witnessed lots of cultures, lots of civilizations, lots of stories. It’s how we position these amazing, inspiring locations to be pivotal characters in any audio-visual production.”
