Upcoming films from Cannes doc awards winner Asmae El Moudir, Saudi Arabian filmmaker and actor Fatima Al-Banawi, and rising Nigerian filmmaker C.J. Obasi are among 38 feature projects due to be presented at the Red Sea Souk Project Market this year.
The meeting will unfold within the framework of the fourth Red Sea International Film Festival , running in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah from December 5 to 14. Like the festival, it will return to its original setting of the city’s historic Al Balad quarter after two years in the Ritz Carlton hotel, while a new HQ was being built. The 12 in-development projects include Al-Banawi’s Do Re Mimi , her second feature in the director’s chair after Basma , which debuted on Netflix this year.
Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, who won Cannes Oeil d’Or prize for doc The Mother of All Lies, will attend with new working titled project Holy Cow . Obasi, who made waves last year with Mami Wata , will unveil La Pyramide. The event will also present 12 projects developed under the auspices of the festival’s Red Sea Lodge project incubator as well as seven films at the work-in-progress stage.
For the first time, the Red Sea Souk will also showcase seven series currently in development with the Red Sea SeriesLab, in collaboration with Film Independent. These include Kenyan drama Generation A by Mona Ombogo and Louise Kamwangi. In another fresh development, the Souk opened its call for submissions to filmmakers across Asia for t.