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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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US President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate for an end to the war in Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Politics

Putin rides high after Alaska

18 August 2025

Seven instances that showed the Russian leader had the upper hand during his meeting with Trump

Robert Ford
Aliaa Aboukhaddour
Culture & Social Affairs

How Gaza’s hakawati use storytelling to cling to memory and life

17 August 2025

Storytelling in a genocide in which there has been no formal education for two years is no luxury. Rather, it is an attempt to revive the imaginations of a generation robbed of their childhood.

Houssam Marouf
Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and Turkish Defence Minister Yaşar Güler hold up an MOU on security cooperation in Ankara on August 13, 2025. Syrian Foreign Ministry
Politics

The implications of expanded Syria-Türkiye military ties

15 August 2025

Israel has made clear its objection to Turkish military bases in Syria. Could a recently signed MOU between Ankara and Damascus to boost security cooperation threaten Türkiye's good ties with the US?

Omer Onhon
Al Majalla
Business & Economy

How Vision 2030 diversified the Saudi economy

16 August 2025

In the second instalment of a two-part series, Al Majalla looks at how Saudi Arabia moved from a horizontal to a vertical development model, powered by an ambitious package of reforms

Hussein al-Sharaa
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes an address following an emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza at 10 Downing Street in London on July 29, 2025. Toby Melville / AFP
Politics

Performative politics: Palestine recognition pledges ring hollow

18 August 2025

The moves by France, the UK and other Western states appear to be more about appeasing domestic critics with symbolic gestures rather than a genuine attempt to change Israel's behaviour

Christopher Phillips

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OPINIONS

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Khalil Sweileh
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Putin rides high after Alaska

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