DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival will run from Dec. 3-12, 2026, organizers announced on Wednesday evening.
The star-studded event will once again take place at the film festival’s headquarters in Al-Balad, Jeddah.
Last year marked the festival’s fifth year, and RSIFF returned with the theme “For the Love of Cinema.” In 2025, the festival screened more than 100 films from Saudi Arabia, the Arab world, Asia and Africa.
The Arab Spectacular program featured regional titles including “Palestine 36” by Annemarie Jacir, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Unidentified,” and “A Matter of Life and Death” by Anas Ba-Tahaf, starring Saudi Actress Sarah Taibah.
The International Spectacular section saw screenings such as “Couture” starring Angelina Jolie, “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” “Scarlet,” “Farruquito — A Flamenco Dynasty,” and “Desert Warrior,” which was filmed in Saudi Arabia.
The first-ever feature film to be shot entirely in the Rohingya language, Akio Fujimoto’s “Lost Land,” won the top prize at the fifth edition.
The Kingdom’s Red Sea Film Fund was also in the news this week as three films supported by the fund made it into the Cannes Film Festival 2026 selection.
Making it to the official Competition line-up is “Parallel Tales” by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi. A remake of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog VI,” the film stars Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa and Catherine Deneuve.
In the Un Certain Regard section, we find “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep” by German-born Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi and “Benimana” by Rwandan director Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo.
