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The Saudi Film Festival saudi film festival

Saudi Film Festival 2025 focuses on the cinema of identity

Featuring a production market, workshops, discussions, and international collaborations, this year's festival shows that the event has evolved into a space that shapes films before they are made.

Noor Hisham Alsaif 17 April 2025

Saudi film 'Rouge' shows the pressure women face to look young

Al Majalla speaks to Saudi film director Samaher Mously on her debut short film that uses dark humour to explore the tyranny of beauty as perpetuated by the global cosmetics industry

Asmahan Al-Sha’abouni 10 February 2025
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Welad Rizk 3: Saudi cinema’s new use of characters and techniques

A visionary film, and the state-of-the-art way in which it was shot, shows how modernised production is moving the country's movie-making up to global standards with a new genre: Arab action

Shadi Alaa Aldin 05 August 2024
Saudi film director Tawfik al-Zaidi

Saudi filmmaker Tawfik al-Zaidi gets candid in Cannes

'Norah' is the first Saudi film to be featured at the Cannes Film Festival. In an interview with Al Majalla, its director discusses the challenges he faced and how he feels about the landmark moment.

Firas Al-Madi 22 May 2024
The Saudi film industry had a blockbuster year but there is room for improvement. Lina Jaradat

Saudi cinema’s blockbuster year still leaves room for improvement

Filmmakers are being adventurous, and production quality is superb, but the tendency to over-indulge has lessened the impact of some Saudi films. Still, the future is bright.

Obaid al-Tamimi 16 April 2024
A still image from the film 'Four Daughters' Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

'Four Daughters' explores themes of femininity under the Islamic State

Film director Kaouther Ben Hania's innovative and unconventional docudrama is part-real, part-fiction. The Tunisian family it depicts is real, as is their pain, and it is scooping up many awards.

Ibrahim Haj Abdi 09 March 2024
This year, the festival selected three films produced by Ithra: Hajjan, Hadi Al-Ess (pictured), and the documentary Khaled Al-Sheikh: Between the Thorns of Art and Politics.

Ithra’s head of cinema: Saudi stories deserve to be told 

Majid Zuhair Samman says Ithra aims to help Saudi filmmakers tell authentic stories and support a new generation of creative storytellers

Abeer Younis 02 January 2024
CEO of Red Sea International Film Festival, Mohammed Al Turki speaks on stage during the Closing Night Gala Awards at the Red Sea International Film Festival on December 08, 2022 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Getty

Red Sea Film Festival kicks off with international and Saudi productions

The festival kicks off with the world premiere of the Saudi film "Inheritance", directed by Yasir Al-Yasiri, along with 35 other Saudi films.

Abdul Rahman Farouk 30 November 2023
Behind the scenes of Saudi film 'Hajjan', which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Saudi cinema shines at Toronto International Film Festival with three participating films

As three Saudi films participate in the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Al Majalla talks to the directors about their ambitious productions, telling Saudi stories and global audiences.

Mohamed Jameel Ahmed 15 September 2023
A still from 'Night Courier'.

Night Courier: A dark character study about class divide and hustle culture

The Saudi film now screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the anxiety-ridden story of Fahad, a delivery driver struggling to make ends meet. Al Majalla reviews the film.

Obaid al-Tamimi 15 September 2023
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Politics

Trump's visit tests 'special' US-UK relationship

16 September 2025

Despite Trump's often hostile engagement with traditional US allies, Starmer has trodden a careful path to keep him on side. But is this sustainable?

Christopher Phillips
Opinion

'The Voice of Hind Rajab' shows cries for justice are only getting louder

07 September 2025

A 24-minute standing ovation at the film premiere was more than a symbolic gesture of justice for Israel's murder of little Hind, but a heartfelt cry of real anguish over the ongoing genocide in Gaza

Samer Abou Hawwach
Armed men from the MSA, an armed political movement in Mali's Azawad region, gather in the desert outside Menaka on March 14, 2020. AFP
Politics

The Sahel's paramilitary problem

09 September 2025

Armed groups are being formed in places like Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where state militaries cannot defeat jihadists and separatists alone. Once formed, however, they seldom stay loyal.

Sergey Eledinov
Egyptian writer May Telmissany poses during a portrait session held on April 15, 2014, in Paris, France. Ulf Andersen/Getty
Culture & Social Affairs

May Telmissany: writing is an act of resistance against the ugliness of the world

14 September 2025

The acclaimed Egyptian writer talks love, betrayal, autobiography, and the lack of Arab literary identity

El-Sayed Hussein
Lina Jaradat
Politics

Butterfly effect: can the Palestine protest movement turn the tide?

14 September 2025

For nearly two years, protests around the world calling for an end to Israel's war on Gaza haven't fizzled out, but grown. Their geographic reach and longevity appear to have no precedent in history.

Bryn Haworth

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OPINIONS

Tony Blair's hand in Gaza's 'Day After' raises eyebrows

Bryn Haworth
Bryn Haworth

Netanyahu’s ‘peace through force’ doctrine hurts Syria talks

Haid Haid
Haid Haid

Nurturing success: Gulf states make inroads in agriculture

Amer Ziab Al-Tamimi
Amer Ziab Al-Tamimi

No red light for Israel's Gaza city invasion

Fares Garabet
Fares Garabet
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