Submissions are open for the inaugural edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival. Entries opened on Tuesday and will close on Nov. 15, for a program presenting a distinctive selection of international, Arab, and Saudi feature-length, short and immersive works. The Festival will take place in the ancient Jeddah Old Town in March 2020. Submission details and conditions can be found via the Red Sea International Film Festival website at redseafilmfest.com/programme/film-submissions, and are open via Eventival from Sept. 17 till Nov. 15. In Competition is an international program, celebrating innovative approaches to storytelling, judged for cash prizes in the Yusr Awards by a jury of global cinema leaders. International films must have Middle East premiere status, and Arab films are required to be original works by emerging and established filmmakers, with special attention given to promoting films from the Global South. The Yusr Awards offer cash prizes totaling $250,000 in diverse fields, including directing, screenwriting, and acting. The awards are designed to recognize daring, elevate new voices, and encourage film culture in Saudi and the region. For short filmmakers from the Arab World, there's also a Golden Yusr and a cash prize for the Best Short Film. The Red Sea Shorts Competition is for filmmakers from the Arab World, a section where audiences can encounter contemporary creativity from the region's filmmakers and artists of any discipline. A pioneering program exploring Saudi cinema called: New Cinema/New Saudi will make an introduction to vital filmmakers and artists from the Kingdom's energetic new cinema wave. Tajreeb is the home for Saudi-made, extroverted, impressionistic narrative, documentary or animated films that capture the zeitgeist. The Festival's setting in the UNESCO-listed, ancient coral labyrinth of Jeddah Old Town will be transformed through Immersive Cinema experiences, including Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. — SG
