Why Everyone’s Talking About This Year’s Saudi Film Festival

Saudi Arabia’s longest-running film festival was back in town this spring. Hosted at Ithra, the Saudi east coast’s cultural hub in Dhahran, the 11th Saudi Film Festival (SFF) opened with an impressive international lineup to big expectations. This year’s theme, “Cinema of Identity,” focused on putting the lived experiences of characters from different countries, eras, genders, and interests on the big screen. 

68 films were shown over the course of seven days, including feature films, short films, and documentaries from Saudi and the wider Middle East. The festival also marked 70 years of Saudi-Japan relations with eight Japanese films and panel discussions with Japanese filmmakers. And to top things off, filmmakers and buffs alike had a chance to connect with celebrities, platforms, and producers at the Production Market, including a chance to screen their own work. 

There was a lot of (deserved!) buzz around “Hobal,” Saudi director Abdulaziz Alshlahei’s latest movie, and a box-office hit in the Kingdom already. Saudi Ahd Kamel’s coming-of-age story “My Driver and I,” and Iraqi American Oday Rasheed’s surreal, “Songs of Adam,” were also just some of the celebrated Arabic-language features in the running for the all-important Film Competition. 

One of the most sought-after tickets, though, was for the panel featuring Japanese director and photographer Ken Ochiai, Oscar-nominated animator Koji Yamamura, and Ithra’s resident Japanese film expert Majed Z. Samman. Ochiai was quick to praise “Hobal” and note the similarities to Japanese storytelling on the screen – which emphasizes cinematography, narrative, and concise dialogue. Samman, meanwhile noted that love for anime runs deep in Saudi Arabia, with many people’s first experience of animation coming from Japanese anime series dubbed into Arabic. 

The Saudi Film Festival wrapped on a high note this year, with film buffs proud at how massively diverse it has become over the past decade and change. SFF is truly a celebration of how you can bring people together to experience different perspectives, places, and times, and break through language and cultural barriers. Looks like that movie watchlist just got about a foot longer, though…