TELFAZ11 Commits to 9 Productions at NEOM Over Next 3 Years

The collaboration between NEOM and TELFAZ11 will accelerate the growth of NEOM’s media industries ecosystem
The collaboration between NEOM and TELFAZ11 will accelerate the growth of NEOM’s media industries ecosystem
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TELFAZ11 Commits to 9 Productions at NEOM Over Next 3 Years

The collaboration between NEOM and TELFAZ11 will accelerate the growth of NEOM’s media industries ecosystem
The collaboration between NEOM and TELFAZ11 will accelerate the growth of NEOM’s media industries ecosystem

Saudi Arabia’s NEOM and TELFAZ11 have announced a key partnership to create up to nine TV and film productions over the next three years, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The collaboration between NEOM and TELFAZ11 will accelerate the growth of NEOM’s media industries ecosystem, ensuring a rich pipeline of productions, including two feature films and one series currently in development under the new arrangement, SPA said.

Saturday’s announcement follows a recent drumbeat of high-profile TELFAZ11 successes, including the debut of its latest theatrical feature film ‘Sattar,’ which has become the highest-grossing Saudi film to date.

In addition to productions, TELFAZ11 plans to establish a physical presence at NEOM by opening offices in NEOM’s media hub this year. This new office will complement TELFAZ11’s existing offices in Riyadh and Dubai. NEOM will also leverage TELFAZ11’s new NEOM offices to diversify its industry learning activities and multi-disciplinary talent development programs, creating a vibrant talent pool across the value chain and vital career pathways for graduates.

“Our mission is to create a new world-class media hub at NEOM, one that supports the region’s industry to compete and succeed globally. This partnership with TELFAZ11 complements and accelerates this partnership, coupled with our evolving infrastructure, crew depth, industry learning programs, and highly competitive incentive scheme, showing we are well on our way to achieving these goals,” said Wayne Borg, Managing Director of Media Industries, Entertainment, and Culture at NEOM.

Alaa Faden, CEO and Co-Founder of TELFAZ11 said that TELFAZ11 has consistently operated on the leading edge of innovation.

NEOM has provided the backdrop for 30 productions in the last 18 months, including Rupert Wyatt’s ‘Desert Warrior’, starring Anthony Mackie and Sir Ben Kingsley; ‘Dunki’ directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starring Shah Rukh Khan; local acclaimed Saudi feature ‘Within Sand’ directed by Moe Alatawi; the first regional reality TV show ‘Million Dollar Island;’ and ‘Rise of The Witches’, the region’s biggest-ever budget TV show. MBC’s ‘Exceptional,’ a 200-episode-per-year TV drama series, is set to begin shooting in July.



Timothee Chalamet Channels Bob Dylan with Warning about Cult-like Figures

 US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Timothee Chalamet Channels Bob Dylan with Warning about Cult-like Figures

 US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
US-French actor Timothee Chalamet attends a press conference for the film "A Complete Unknown" presented as Berlinale Special at the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

Timothee Chalamet learned from his roles as Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown" and Paul Atreides in "Dune" that cult-like figures should be approached with caution, the Oscar-nominated actor said at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday.

"It's in the nature of his music, the warnings against cult-like figures," Chalamet told journalists when asked what he learned from the US singer-songwriter about how to deal with the current state of the world.

"My interpretation is just be wary of any savior-like figures," said Chalamet, whose Dylan biopic was being shown in the festival's non-competition Special section.

"That's honestly the warning in Frank Herbert's 'Dune', which was written in the same period in American history," added Chalamet.

"Granted, Frank Herbert was on the West Coast, probably doing acid at a typewriter, and Bob Dylan was on the East Coast, but the messaging was still similar," Chalamet said.

The 29-year-old actor starred in both parts of Denis Villeneuve's science-fiction epic "Dune", based on author Herbert's highly acclaimed 1965 novel of the same name.

Chalamet, a frontrunner in the race for best actor at next month's Oscars for his turn as Dylan, said he was grateful for his chance to play the artist.

"A Complete Unknown", which also stars Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro, chronicles Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961, his rapid ascent in folk music circles, and his divisive turn to electric rock music in 1965.

"We (the cast) know these projects are few and far between now," he said.

"I was looking at the Berlinale film program, you guys have a lot of really intellectually driven, artistically driven projects, but I guess we do in the States too, but ... these things are harder to come by."