“It’s a real opportunity to talk to people and build cinema with an audience that’s eager for ideas, to open up, to talk, to be part of a conversation,” says [Finn] Halligan, ahead of this year’s festival, which will play 111 films in the port city of Jeddah from December 4-13.”
This sounds like an exciting development for Saudi Arabia’s film industry. The aim is to build a film culture and not just a once a year festival event. Whilst the programme is limited due to the size of the venue, I can see this growing and opening up the market to European films, as foreign language entrants.
What are your thoughts about this?
https://www.screendaily.com/interviews/red-seas-finn-halligan-and-antoin...?
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I don't know if I've seen content from Saudi Arabia yet Geoff Hall. I had to check to see where The Stoning of Soraya M. was located: Jordan. I guess I'll have to check out a couple Saudi films on Netflix.
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Debbie Elicksen sounds like a good idea, Debbie. Please let me know what you find.
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Geoff Hall Saudi Arabia is getting into a highly diversified set of global investments. For a country with a trade balance of just $73 billion in 2024, this is quite rare compared to countries with much larger trade surpluses such as China ($450B) and Germany ($320B).
The PIF’s growth from roughly $100–200 billion in 2015 to over $1 trillion in 2025 naturally raises an important question: what might the fund’s growth rate and total size look like over the next 10 years?
Trump, despite the criticism he often receives, does appear to have a few surprises here. He has expressed support for the idea of a US sovereign wealth fund—which is both an intriguing and potentially deeply concerning idea, given the typical trajectory of US foreign policy and strategic activities abroad over the past few decades. That said, it is probably something the US needs, depending on what it is being used for, who ultimately controls decision-making and sets the fund’s goals.
Such a fund would almost certainly trigger significant political infighting over structure, governance, and how decisions are made regarding what to acquire, when, and where to invest. The Saudi's seem very focused and organized in terms of its strategic goals with the fund.
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Kenneth George thanks Kenneth. I suppose as with all such investments, we may have to consider ‘message bias’ and filmmakers not having control of their stories, if they gain financial support from such a fund?
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Geoff Hall That’s an interesting point. In film and television, creative control is rarely absolute — for most filmmakers, it is shaped by whoever provides the financing, whether that comes from studios, streamers, foreign pre‑sales, advertisers, or state‑linked funds. Of course, top‑tier talent or elite filmmakers — often have the leverage to negotiate or influence key creative decisions.
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Kenneth George thank you, Kenneth.
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Wow, this will definitely open doors for film production. Thanks for sharing Geoff!
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You are welcome, Darryl Mitchell