The 4th Jeddah film festival is all set to create a new record in the history of Saudi film festivals with the participation of about 200 films in various categories. Mamdouh Salem, renowned filmmaker associated with Rowad Media for Media Production and Distribution and organizer of Jeddah film festival, told Saudi Gazette recently the latest festival is being organized on an international level where films from around the world will take part. There will be almost 70 Saudi films, 17 from United Arab Emirates, 13 from Bahrain, 7 from Kuwait, one from Oman, 42 from other Gulf countries and 50 films are from Europe and Asia, he said. Rawad media production and distribution of audio and video's department of Jeddah film festival has created a technical committee to evaluate films for the festival and competitions and number of officials and specialists will work with the committee to select the films. The committee will announce the complete list of films participating in the festival by the beginning of next month, Mamdouh Salem said. “The number of participating films is very large compared to previous years, which makes it imperative for the evaluation committee to control and maintain standards according to the Saudi standard of technical quality, sound, space and production of the film and translation of the film into English language,” said Mamdouh. He expressed hope that public will enjoy the festival. “We are doing our best to organize more high class festivals,” he said. The first film festival was held in 2006 and since then it has become an annual event for the month of July. This year the slogan of the film festival is “About Gulf Film Industry” with the aim to promote Arab culture, traditions and to enhance the youth morally and culturally and also to encourage the creative energies of young filmmakers and support them for international partnerships, and to build a bridge between the cinematic experience of Gulf and other Arab countries and get experience on an international level.
