The Venice Film Festival’s Final Cut workshop, an initiative run by the Venice Production Bridge that has supported in-development films from African and Middle Eastern nations including Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine since 2013, and the Red Sea International Film Festival have announced a partnership.
Five movies supported by the RSIFF will be shown throughout the festival as part of the cooperation. They include the Iraqi director Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradj’s “Hanging Gardens” and the Syrian director Soudade Kaadan’s “Nezouh.” “Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous,” a film by French-Lebanese director Wissam Charaf; “The Last Queen,” directed by French-Algerian Damien Ounouri, and “Queens,” by Moroccan director and author Yasmine Benkiran.
Ten films from the Middle East will also be shown during the 79th Venice Film Festival, which starts on August 31 and runs through September 10. The dark comedy “Inshallah A Boy,” by Amjad Al-Rasheed, and “The Cemetery of Cinema,” a documentary by Thierno Souleymane Diallo, are two of the eight films that will be screened for producers, buyers, distributors, post-production firms, and festival programmers. A money prize will be given to one movie.
Mohammed Al-Turki, the chief executive officer of the RSIFF, said: “We are thrilled to form a partnership with the Venice Film Production Bridge’s Final Cut in Venice program to strengthen our commitment to regional filmmakers and bring more projects to fruition, so they can compete at the most prestigious festivals in the world.
This year’s films from the area are of an excellent caliber and are certain to make an impression on viewers everywhere.