Diane Kruger, Bollywood star Ranveer Singh and Saudi actor-writer Abdullah Al-Sadhan are set to receive career honors at Saudi Arabia’s upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival, which has also announced its full jury roster.
Joining Baz Luhrmann, who is presiding over the main Red Sea jury, are Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”); Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”); Egyptian actor Amina Khalil; (“Grand Hotel”) and Spain’s Paz Vega (“Sex and Lucía,” “The OA”).
Meanwhile, Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, who directed Kruger in “In The Fade,” will be on the fest’s shorts competition jury alongside Saudi writer and film critic Hana Alomair, who is behind the Netflix Saudi Arabian original “Whispers,” and French-Moroccan actor Assad Bouab (“Call My Agent”).
Dubai-based Iraqi director Yasir Al-Yasiri’s“HWJN” has been chosen as the opening film of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival.
The fest’s third edition is set to kick off Nov. 30 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore, with Iraqi director Yasir Al-Yasiri’s fantasy “HWJN” as the opener. The event will run through Dec. 9.
Mohammed Al-Turki, CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation, said of this year’s honorees: “This year we are honouring Ranveer Singh, an icon of Hindi cinema; Diane Kruger, who has delivered us a series of unforgettable characters from Helen of Troy to Tarantino’s Bridget von Hammersmark and affected us with her powerhouse performance of the avenging Angel Katja in Fatih Akin’s ‘In the Fade’; as well as the hugely beloved Abdullah Al-Sadhan who has been a mainstay of Saudi entertainment through ‘Tash ma Tash’ for two decades and will also appear in this year’s competition title ‘Norah.’ We are thrilled to be recognising each of their varied and deep contributions to cinema and to have them with us for our third edition.”
