DUBAI: The Red Sea Film Foundation gathered actors, filmmakers and industry executives on the French Riviera on Wednesday for its annual Women in Cinema luncheon and press day, held alongside the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
The event celebrated women creatives from the Arab world, Asia and Africa who are reshaping the global entertainment industry. The initiative is a part of the foundation’s ongoing efforts to spotlight emerging and established women working in front of and behind the camera.
This year’s lineup includes Saudi Arabia actress-writer Aixa Kay, Moroccan filmmaker Laila Marrakchi, Nigerian actress-producer Genevieve Nnaji, Indian actress-singer Tara Sutaria, Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo and Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andani.
Kay’s work spans international productions across Canada and Saudi Arabia, including “Saify,” which premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival, and “Norah,” which had its European premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
She has held leading and co-starring roles in series including “Almarsa” and “Shari Al-Asha,” both of which ranked in the top 10 on streaming platform Shahid across multiple countries throughout their airing.
Sutaria has built a career spanning music, theater and film. A classically trained vocalist and ballerina, she has performed on prestigious stages across India, Bhutan and Japan, earning recognition for both her technical skill and emotive performances.
That artistic foundation later shaped her transition to the screen, where she rose to prominence with the 2019 release of the Bollywood film “Student of the Year 2” and went on to establish herself in Indian cinema over the past decade.
Known for championing female-driven narratives, Sutaria drew praise for her performance in “Apurva.” She is next set to appear in “Toxic,” which is slated for worldwide release in 2026.
Moroccan filmmaker Marrakchi will premiere her latest film “Strawberries” in Cannes. Marrakchi, born and raised in Casablanca, left for Paris at 18 to pursue her studies.
Her debut feature film, “Marock” (2005), was showcased in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Her second feature, “Rock the Casbah” (2013), boasted a stellar cast, including Hiam Abbass, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal, Morjana Alaoui and Omar Sharif.
She has also directed two episodes of Damien Chazelle’s “The Eddy” (2020) for Netflix and worked on several French productions.
Nnaji is an actress, producer, and one of the leading figures in African cinema. Widely regarded as a pioneer of Nollywood’s global expansion, she has built a career defined by critical acclaim, commercial success, and cultural impact.
She made her directorial debut with “Lionheart,” which became the first Nigerian film acquired by Netflix and was selected as Nigeria’s submission to the Academy Awards. Beyond her work on screen, Nnaji is a producer committed to advancing the global positioning of African storytelling.
Born in Rwanda, Dusabejambo’s journey as a filmmaker started in 2008, when she joined a group of young filmmakers in her neighborhood in Almond Tree Films. In 2010, she responded to a call-out for a script competition by the Tribeca Film Institute, which she won.
This victory enabled her to make her first short film, “LYIZA,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 and won a Bronze Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival in 2012. Clementine worked as a researcher for “Why We Hate?,” a documentary series by Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney.
Her short films have been presented and awarded at several festivals, including the Carthage Film Festival, where she won the Tanit de Bronze in 2012 and 2018 in Carthage. Her first feature film, “Ben’Imana,” has been officially selected to screen in Cannes 2026, in the Un Certain Regard section.
Andani is an independent filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia, known for her critically acclaimed debut, “The Mirror Never Lies.” The film received awards domestically and internationally, including a Best Director nomination at the 2011 Indonesian Film Festival before winning in the same category at the 2012 Bandung Film Festival.
She went on to direct “The Seen and Unseen,” which won the Feature Fiction Award at the Adelaide Film Festival. Her 2021 film “Yuni” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Platform Prize, followed by “Before, Now & Then,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2023, she expanded into television with the Netflix original series “Cigarette Girl.”
