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Saudi Culture Minister Appoints Abdullah Al Eyaf as Head of Film Commission

CEO of the Film Commission Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani. Asharq Al-Awsat
CEO of the Film Commission Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani. Asharq Al-Awsat
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Saudi Culture Minister Appoints Abdullah Al Eyaf as Head of Film Commission

CEO of the Film Commission Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani. Asharq Al-Awsat
CEO of the Film Commission Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani. Asharq Al-Awsat

Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan appointed Eng. Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani as CEO of the Film Commission, which was established to develop the Film Industry in the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.

Al Eyaf is one of the leading names in Saudi filmmaking and has worked as a director, producer, and writer in many distinguished local works since 2004. He has also chaired arbitration committees in film festivals locally and regionally, and wrote critical cinematic articles in leading Saudi newspapers, such as Al Riyadh, Al Watan, and Asharq Al-Awsat, SPA said.

Al Eyaf, who graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 2001, led the programs and events team at the Saudi Pavilion at Expo 2020.

He also took over the management of programs and initiatives at King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) for three years, besides taking several leading positions in Saudi Aramco, including the chairmanship of the departments of advertising, artistic production, events, and conferences.

The Film Commission will manage the film industry in the Kingdom through several key roles, including but not limited to; drawing up a comprehensive strategy, developing an ideal production environment that enables making Saudi films with high production standards and qualifies them to be promoted locally and internationally, supporting and empowering local talents in the filmmaking industry, encouraging investment, production and development of cinematic content and providing educational and professional programs.

It will also license sector activities and develop the intellectual property rights regarding film protection systems.

This comes in line with the implementation of the comprehensive cultural development project, which is run by the Ministry of Culture, and in fulfillment of the Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
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Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)

A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.
The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year, The Associated Press reported.
The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.
But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.
The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland's then-President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.
The Ähtäri Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some 8 million euros ($9 million) in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve.
The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.
The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ähtäri to solve its financial difficulties by, among things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements.
However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter into a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.
Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.