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Red Sea Int’l Film Festival Welcomes Edouard Waintrop as Artistic Director

The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) announced Edouard Waintrop as its Artistic Director. (Getty Images)
The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) announced Edouard Waintrop as its Artistic Director. (Getty Images)
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Red Sea Int’l Film Festival Welcomes Edouard Waintrop as Artistic Director

The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) announced Edouard Waintrop as its Artistic Director. (Getty Images)
The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) announced Edouard Waintrop as its Artistic Director. (Getty Images)

The Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) announced Edouard Waintrop as its Artistic Director ahead of the inaugural edition in November 2021.

Waintrop is an esteemed critic and former Artistic Director of the Directors’ Fortnight (2011 – 2018), an independent program running parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, read a statement.

Waintrop said: “It is a great privilege and honor to be leading the Red Sea International Film Festival. This new and great Festival will celebrate all aspects of cinema, from the creatives telling stories to the technical craftspeople putting imaginative ideas onto the big screen, celebrating filmmaking as force for positive change.”

“The Festival is set to reflect that metamorphosis and to be the place for the leaders and visionaries of Arab cinema, both established and emerging, to meet, celebrate successes, and look forward to a bright future.”

Also joining the RSIFF team as Special Program Manager is Faizah Ambah, the award-winning writer/director and former Washington Post correspondent.

Waintrop will join a team of programmers from across the world, including film critic Kaleem Aftab (Director of International Programming), Antoine Khalife (Director of Arab Programs & Film Classics), and Mohyee Qari (Program Manager).

The programming team also welcomed Marta Balaga, Alice Kharoubi, Leigh Singer, Carmen Thompson, Badih Massaad, and Kim Young-Woo as programming consultants.

Julie Bergeron returns to the RSIFF as Red Sea Souk Consultant, moving from her previous role as Head of Red Sea Souk. Bergeron has been head of industry programs at the Cannes Marché du Film, as well as the project manager of its Ventana Sur Latin American offshoot.

The November 2021 Festival is led by a team of Saudi and international curators, film specialists, and industry veterans, including Managing Director Shivani Pandya, Jumana Zahid heads the Red Sea Lodge, the Foundation’s incubator for Saudi and Arab filmmakers, now in its second edition.

The Red Sea Souk, the Festival’s industry platform for distributors, sales agents, and producers, is helmed by Zain Zedan (Industry/Souk Manager). The operations team is led by Ibrahim Modir (Head of Shared Services).

The Festival will be held from November 11 to 20 2021 in Jeddah Old Town, Saudi Arabia.

Under the theme of “Metamorphosis,” it celebrates film as a force for positive change and reflects on the local context, as well as the blossoming Middle East and North African film scenes.

The eleven program sections will showcase contemporary international and Arab cinema, Saudi features, shorts and experimental films, retrospectives, and future-oriented AR and VR experiences.

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Entertainment

How the Coveted Bronze BAFTA Mask Trophies Are Made

Completed British Academy Film Awards masks at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
Completed British Academy Film Awards masks at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
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How the Coveted Bronze BAFTA Mask Trophies Are Made

Completed British Academy Film Awards masks at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)
Completed British Academy Film Awards masks at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP)

Those winning a prize at the upcoming British Academy Film Awards will bag a coveted bronze mask trophy — and get a bit of an arm workout taking it home.

Along with the honor of being named the best of the year in the industry, winners at the BAFTA ceremony on Feb. 22 will be awarded one of the dozens of the 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) prizes.

This year the cast and crew of “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” and “Sentimental Value” are in the running for the trophies at the EE BAFTA ceremony, to be held at London's Royal Festival Hall.

As with many things in show business, all that glitters is not gold. The BAFTA masks are made of phosphor bronze, polished to a mirror finish that will reflect the happy face of its new owner.

Craftsmen at the AATi Foundry in Braintree, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of London, use a sandcasting technique to make about 350 bronze trophies each year for all the BAFTA ceremonies — covering the film, television and gaming industries.

They are created in batches, and making one from start to finish takes around a week, the foundry's director Hugh Bisset said Tuesday.

The process starts with a pattern by the tooling team, often out of timber or 3D printing. That tool moves to the molding team which uses sand to make two recessed impressions of the mask, one each side. They are then closed together, ready for molten hot bronze — up to 1,200 degrees Celsius (2,192 Fahrenheit) — to be poured into it.

The metal takes about three or four hours to cool down, when it can then be removed from the sand. The masks' surfaces look dull and a bit rough around the edges at this stage, but after fettling, threading and polishing they are ready to be assembled before being checked over extremely carefully.

Bisset says it’s important that the masks are shiny and have no polish left on them.

“The thing I’m always conscious of is that these amazing actors and actresses, they pick up their awards and my big concern is that a smudge of polish will end up over their lovely, beautiful white dress,” he said. “There’s lots of things we need to think about.”

Bisset reckons the diligence and care that his skilled team puts into the making of the masks reflects the hard work of the winning filmmakers and movie stars.

While it’s still unknown if favorites Jessie Buckley, Timothée Chalamet and Teyana Taylor will get the glory on Sunday, whoever does win will take home something worth more than its heavy weight in bronze.

“There’s a lot of metal in it,” but each mask also has “a lot of time and love being put into it,” Bisset said.

Entertainment

Britney Spears Sells Rights to Music Catalogue

FILE PHOTO: Singer Britney Spears arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, US, August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Singer Britney Spears arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, US, August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo/File Photo
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Britney Spears Sells Rights to Music Catalogue

FILE PHOTO: Singer Britney Spears arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, US, August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Singer Britney Spears arrives at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, US, August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo/File Photo

Pop star ‌Britney Spears has sold her rights to her music catalogue to independent music publisher Primary Wave, the ​latest artist to strike a deal for her work.

Entertainment site TMZ, citing legal documents it had obtained, first reported the news, saying the "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Toxic" singer had signed the deal on December 30.

According to Reuters, it quoted sources as saying it ‌was "in the ‌ballpark" of Canadian singer Justin ​Bieber's ‌reported $200 ⁠million ​agreement to sell ⁠his music rights to Hipgnosis in 2023.

A person familiar with the situation said news of the Spears and Primary Wave deal was accurate. No further details were given.

Primary Wave, which is home to artists ⁠including Whitney Houston, Prince and Stevie ‌Nicks, did not ‌immediately respond to a request for ​comment. Spears has ‌not commented publicly.

The 44-year-old, one of ‌the most successful pop artists of all time, has topped charts around the world, starting off with "...Baby One More Time" in 1998. The ‌deal includes her songs such as "(You Drive Me) Crazy", "Circus", "Gimme More" and "I'm a Slave ⁠4 ⁠U", TMZ said.

Spears' ninth and last studio album, "Glory", came out in 2016.

In 2021, she was released from a 13-year court-ordered conservatorship set up and controlled by her father, Jamie Spears. The arrangement had governed Spears' personal life, career and $60 million estate from 2008 until it was terminated in November 2021.

Spears follows artists such as Sting, ​Bruce Springsteen and Justin ​Timberlake who have struck deals to cash in on their work.

Entertainment

Glitzy Oscar Nominees Luncheon Back One Year After LA Fires 

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura arrives to The Hollywood Reporter's Nominees Night held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2026. (AFP)
Brazilian actor Wagner Moura arrives to The Hollywood Reporter's Nominees Night held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Glitzy Oscar Nominees Luncheon Back One Year After LA Fires 

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura arrives to The Hollywood Reporter's Nominees Night held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2026. (AFP)
Brazilian actor Wagner Moura arrives to The Hollywood Reporter's Nominees Night held at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, on February 10, 2026. (AFP)

Hollywood stars embraced at this year's Oscars nominee lunch, the glamorous pre-show gathering that was canceled amid last year's devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

Timothee Chalamet, nominated for best actor in "Marty Supreme," flashed a smile while fellow Best Actor contenders Micahel B. Jordan and Ethan Hawke also flitted around the annual luncheon in Beverly Hills.

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro chatted with his tablemates as Wagner Moura, the Brazilian star of "The Secret Agent," enthusiastically embraced Stellan Skarsgard and Oliver Laxe -- the latter of whom has his film "Sirat" up for best international feature film.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Lynette Howell Taylor praised the diversity of this year's nominees.

"Ballots were cast from 88 countries and regions," the British producer said, adding that "the mission of the Academy is to amplify your art, movies and your voices."

The more than 200 nominees enjoyed a buzzy afternoon, all the more energetic after last year's lunch was canceled as huge fires razed whole communities around Los Angeles. That year the lunch was replaced with a smaller dinner at the Academy's museum.

"This is a recognition of Brazilian cinema, and of the cinema of our region," Moura told AFP.

Nearby, "The Secret Agent" director Kleber Mendonca Filho joked he was feeling animated -- "like a generator."

Skarsgard said that the impact of international films is growing, as evidenced by his historic nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Norwegian film "Sentimental Value."

Foreign films and their stars typically notch nominations in the international categories, but Skarsgard is competing against nominees from US blockbusters, including Benicio del Toro in "One Battle After Another" and Delroy Lindo in "Sinners."

Benicio del Toro meanwhile told AFP he was doubly thrilled after watching fellow Puerto Rican Bad Bunny perform at the Super Bowl halftime show over the weekend.

"I got goosebumps," he told AFP, adding: "It was beautiful."

The luncheon's other legendary del Toro, the director Guillermo, meanwhile said he was "calm."

While his "Frankenstein" is nominated for Best Picture, del Toro himself is off the hook for Best Director, which he said took the pressure off him and meant he could focus on promoting his team.

"I'm happy because nine nominations don't happen every day," he said.

Lanky heartthrob Jacob Elordi, up for best supporting actor, offered a similarly toned down vibe at an impromptu photo shoot.

"I'm chilling," he said. "It's all good."