The Red Sea Film Foundation, which organizes the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, unveiled a leadership update on Wednesday, including the transition of Mohammed Al Turki from his CEO post to an advisor role.
“Al Turki will continue to support the leadership team while he returns to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman,” it said. “The selection of a successor is underway and in the interim, former board member of the Red Sea Film Foundation Mohammed Asseri will step in as acting CEO of the foundation.”
The Red Sea Film Foundation recently had a landmark Cannes Film Festival which saw four titles supported by the organization selected for the festival. This included Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, which had its world premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December and made history as the first Saudi film to be chosen to screen as part of the Cannes Official Selection.
Since its inception, the Red Sea Film Foundation has supported more than 250 projects from Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
“We celebrated a watershed moment in Cannes with the screening of Norah, which was a milestone both for the foundation and for Saudi cinema as a whole,” said Jomana Alrashid, chair of the Red Sea Film Foundation. “As we leave the Cannes Film Festival on a high, we look back at the past three years and the building blocks that have been worked on relentlessly by the team at Red Sea Film Foundation and share our gratitude for Mohammed AlTurki who played a key role in leading the team and the Foundation to where it is today.”
Added the chair: “We look forward to watching his career as one of Saudi’s most prominent film executives continue.”
Said Al Turki: “Working with the foundation on these three editions of the festival and cementing Saudi Arabia’s place on the global stage of the film industry has been an honor and a privilege. We have achieved so much, and ahead of our fourth edition – we are in a position we could only have dreamed of a few years ago – which is why I feel now is the perfect time to transition.”
Both lauded the work of managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra.
The fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival will run in Jeddah Dec. 5-14.
