The Red Sea Film Foundation today confirmed the second cycle of the Red Sea Fund, dedicated to the development stage, will open for submissions for features, documentary, and animation projects on 6th April and close on the 20th April 2022. The second cycle of the fund enables filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab region, and Africa secure access to crucial funding at the early stages of crafting an idea, exploring unique stories and script development. The recently improved year-round fund comprising of four cycles was adapted to handle the increasing number of submissions and will empower uprising filmmakers the support they need to create and evolve production-ready screenplays to bring them one step closer to bringing their stories to the screen. As the film industry in Saudi Arabia continues to thrive, the Red Sea Fund has proven to be a crucial vehicle to ensure filmmakers are in a position to make a vital contribution to champion the cultural value of storytelling in the Kingdom and thus creating a window for audiences to access authentic, untold narratives from the past, present and future. To encourage Saudi filmmakers who have taken part in previous funding cycles, they are eligible to submit their short films for further funding consideration. Last year, out of the 97 awarded projects, 37 films were from development stage which further underlines the importance of this stage of the filmmaking process. As many as 14 Red Sea Funded films from Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco were presented to packed-out film screenings at the Red Sea International Festival in December. With a number of the films finding their way onto the international festival circuit this further indicates that the Red Sea Fund is an important force behind extraordinary features, documentaries, and animations coming out of Saudi, the Arab region, and Africa. Red Sea IFF's Chairman of the committee Mohammed Al-Turki said: "The development stage of the Red Sea Fund cycle is crucial for filmmakers with strong and exceptional stories to tell. Global streamers and studios are ramping up the volume of local content available on their platforms, the surge of Arab and African films continues to increase at international Film Festivals and there is investment from international and regional production companies to shoot in the region. This is an exciting time for filmmakers; however, we are fully aware of how challenging the process can be and we look forward to supporting a new diverse slate of projects, broaden recognition for filmmakers and support their journey from script to screen through the Red Sea Fund."
