Overview
- The festival runs December 4–13 in Jeddah’s UNESCO-listed Al Balad district.
- Late additions to the In Conversation lineup include Jessica Alba, Queen Latifah, Dakota Johnson, Ana de Armas, Kirsten Dunst, Nina Dobrev and Kriti Sanon.
- Sean Baker serves as jury president, with master classes by Adrien Brody and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and a SeriesLab mentoring session led by Giancarlo Esposito.
- The competition features seven Foundation-backed titles, including Saudi Arabia’s Oscar submission Hijra and Lebanon’s contender A Sad and Beautiful World, alongside an International Spectacular that includes Rupert Wyatt’s Saudi-shot Desert Warrior and other high-profile films.
- The Red Sea Souk has more than 160 companies from about 45 countries booked, with registered attendance up 25% and executives from Netflix, Prime Video and Disney set to attend.