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Saudi Film Festival Opens Door for 9th Edition Submissions

The Saudi Film Festival will be held on May 4 - 11, 2023.
The Saudi Film Festival will be held on May 4 - 11, 2023.
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Saudi Film Festival Opens Door for 9th Edition Submissions

The Saudi Film Festival will be held on May 4 - 11, 2023.
The Saudi Film Festival will be held on May 4 - 11, 2023.

The Saudi Film Festival (SFF) announced it has opened the window for submissions for its 9th edition scheduled to be held at the Ithra Center, Dhahran, between May 4 and 11, 2023.

The event is organized by the Cinema Association in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) and the support of the Film Commission of the Ministry of Culture.

The deadline for submissions ends on March 8.

The forthcoming edition of SFF includes four competitions: Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Script, and Best Unproduced Script. Films and scripts will compete for 26 prizes.

The Best Feature Film Competition offers eight awards: Golden Palm for Best Feature Film, Jury Award, Golden Palm for Best Actor, Golden Palm for Best Actress, Golden Palm for Best Sound Design, Golden Palm for Best Cinematography, Golden Palm for Best Executed Screenplay, and Golden Palm for the best montage.

The Awards for the short Films Competition include: Golden Palm for Best Short Film, Jury Award, Golden Palm for Best Actor, Golden Palm for Best Actress, Golden Palm for Best Cinematography, Golden Palm for Best Animation Film, and Abdullah Al Muhaisin Award for the first film.

The awards for Documentary Films Competition are: Golden Palm for Best Documentary Film, Jury Award, Unique Documentary Subject Award, and Jebel Tuwaiq Award for the best film about a Saudi city.

The Unproduced Script Competition Awards are: Best First Feature Film script, Best Second Feature Film script, Best Third Feature Film script, Best First Short Film script, Best Second Short Film script, and Ghazi Al-Gosaibi Award for Best script based on a Saudi Novel. The festival also welcomes Gulf filmmakers to apply for selection within the festival's programs and to compete for the Gulf Film Award.

SFF is seen as the premier film festival in Saudi Arabia since its launch in 2008. It has led to interest in filmmaking in the Kingdom, encouraging innovators and developing the industry, while creating a competitive environment among the filmmakers.

The festival also announced that filmmakers can apply for the 3rd edition of the production market program to compete for six grants introduced by the festival, in addition to other grants offered by the companies in the market.

The Production Market Grants include: Development grant for a feature film, production grant for a feature film, post-production grant for a feature film, development grant for a short film, production grant for a short film, and post-production grant for a short film.

The festival will also include other activities such as workshops, seminars and book releases, and will host figures from cinema from around the world. The details are set to be announced soon in a press event.

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'Mufasa' Film Puts Classic Lions Into More Complex Storylines

This image released by Disney shows characters Afia, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, Mufasa, voiced by Braelyn Rankins, center, and Masego, voiced by Keith David, in a scene from "Mufasa: The Lion King." (Disney via AP)
This image released by Disney shows characters Afia, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, Mufasa, voiced by Braelyn Rankins, center, and Masego, voiced by Keith David, in a scene from "Mufasa: The Lion King." (Disney via AP)
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'Mufasa' Film Puts Classic Lions Into More Complex Storylines

This image released by Disney shows characters Afia, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, Mufasa, voiced by Braelyn Rankins, center, and Masego, voiced by Keith David, in a scene from "Mufasa: The Lion King." (Disney via AP)
This image released by Disney shows characters Afia, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, Mufasa, voiced by Braelyn Rankins, center, and Masego, voiced by Keith David, in a scene from "Mufasa: The Lion King." (Disney via AP)

Director Barry Jenkins believes it was important to revisit the Disney classic "The Lion King" with the prequel "Mufasa: The Lion King" for audiences to understand that the protagonist lion Mufasa was never perfect, and the villain Scar was not always evil.
"For 30 years we've been living with this idea of Mufasa as unimpeachably great and good, and Scar is like the full embodiment of evil," Jenkins told Reuters.
"In this story, we get to go back and show that no one is born good or born evil. You'll get a result of all these different choices that you make, good parenting, bad parenting, nature versus nurture," the "Moonlight" director added.
Jenkins found that it was key to the story to introduce a more complex look at the classic characters.
The film, written by Jeff Nathanson, uses photorealistic animation and serves as both a prequel to the original animated 1994 "The Lion King" and a sequel to the 2019 remake, which was directed by Jon Favreau.
"Mufasa", distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, arrives in theaters on Friday.
The movie includes the voices of leads Aaron Pierre as Mufasa, the lion who grows up to be the king and father to Simba along with Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Taka, who's eventually known as the antagonist named Scar, a prince and Mufasa's adoptive brother.
Taking place in the Pride Lands of Tanzania after the events of the 2019 "Lion King" film, "Mufasa" follows Mufasa and Taka, who become friends and eventually adoptive brothers until a series of devastating events threaten their bond.
The voice cast also includes multi-Grammy winner Beyonce Knowles-Carter who reprises her role from the 2019 film as Simba's mate, Nala, and the "Texas Hold 'Em" singer's daughter, Blue Ivy, making her film debut voicing Simba and Nala's daughter, Princess Kiara.
It was important for Pierre to pay homage to the late James Earl Jones, one of the most renowned actors in Hollywood and the original voice of Mufasa.
"He really for me is just top level," the "Genius" actor said.
For Pierre, Jones was his guiding light that extinguished any fear that he had about the iconic role.
"I actually managed to use that (his fear) in the adolescent version because the adolescent version doesn't have it all figured out," he added.