Oliver Stone Saudi Arabia Red Sea Film Festival Jury Chairman, Premiere Lineup – The Hollywood Reporter
The Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia has appointed Oliver Stone as jury president and announced the program for its second edition, which will take place December 1-10 in Jeddah.
The organizers said: “Legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone has been selected as the head of the jury of the competition Red Sea: Features. “The three-time Oscar winner is the man behind some of the all-time cinematic masterpieces, including Scar face, The Doors, Wall Street, JFK, Night speed train, Platoon, Born on July 4, Nixon and Natural born killers. ”
The film festival also announced the inaugural film: What does love have to do with anything?by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, Robber Queen), written by Jemima Khan and produced by StudioCanal and Working Title. The film stars Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Sajal Aly, Asim Chaudhry and Emma Thompson. “Slide between London and Lahore, love and friendship, tradition and symbolism, What does love have to do with anything? is a British cross-cultural romantic comedy that follows a filmmaker who decides to document her best friend’s journey towards an arranged marriage,” the festival said.
Meanwhile, its concluding film will be the world premiere of Valley Road by Saudi writer-director Khaled Fahd and starring Hamad Farhan, Naif Khalaf and Aseel Omran. “A striking and mesmerizing feature that follows Ali, who is disabled by his family and residents of the beautiful Saudi Arabian mountain village in which he lives, Alwadi,” according to the plot description. “Only his sister Siham realizes that his differences are part of him. The film wonderfully exploits human values and encounters that can forge a personality and invite us to take a better look at the fragile people around us.
Overall, the Red Sea International Film Festival will screen 131 feature films and short films from 61 countries in 41 languages “from established and emerging talents” and will hold 34 world premieres. , 17 premieres in Arabia and 47 premieres in the Middle East and North Africa, “with a number of filmmakers and actors attending multiple films,” the organizers said. More movies are expected to be added in the coming weeks.
