RIYADH: Saudi music entertainment company MDLBEAST is staging a series of performances by international artists to coincide with the Esports World Cup 2024.
AFT_r music shows will take place weekly over seven weeks until Aug. 15 at Boulevard Riyadh City.
The opening event featured performers such as Aly Fathallah, singer and producer Ckay, DJ Nooriyah, and rapper ElGrandeToto.
American rappers Wiz Khalifa, Gunna, G-Eazy, Don Toliver, and Jack Harlow will be among artists performing in coming weeks.
The lineup also features international DJs such as DJ Snake, R3HAB, and Sebastian Ingrosso.
“The launch of AFT_r shows with the supporting events of EWC, the largest event of its kind in the world, provides local audiences and visitors with an outstanding musical entertainment experience during this global event, strengthening the Kingdom’s regional and global position in esports, and music entertainment,” MDLBEAST CEO Ramadan Alharatani said.
The EWC tournament features a cross-game structure that pits the world’s top esports teams and athletes against one another for the competition’s largest-ever prize pool.
MDLBEAST provides soundtrack to Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh
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MDLBEAST provides soundtrack to Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh
- Rappers Wiz Khalifa, Gunna, G-Eazy, Don Toliver, Jack Harlow among artists performing this month
Angelina Jolie remembers Fatima Hassouna at Cannes
DUBAI: US actress and Oscar winner Angelina Jolie made a special appearance at the Cannes Film Festival to present the Trophee Chopard to rising stars Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett.
During the dinner ceremony, Jolie reflected on the power of international cinema to make an impact in times of global turmoil.
“I love international cinema,” Jolie told the star-studded assembly of guests. “We are brought to other lands, into private moments, even on the battlefield, we connect and we empathize … anything that is possible to make international cinema more accessible is necessary and welcome.”
“And none of us are naive,” Jolie continued. “We know that many artists around the world lack the freedom and security to tell their stories, and many have lost their lives like Fatima Hassouna, killed in Gaza, Shaden Gardood killed in Sudan, and Victoria Amelina killed in Ukraine, and so many other extraordinary artists who should be with us now. We owe all of those risking their lives and sharing their stories and experiences a debt of gratitude, because they have helped us to learn and to evolve.”
Stars on hand at Women in Motion dinner in Cannes
DUBAI/ CANNES: British actress Jameela Jamil and chairwoman of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation Jomana Al-Rashid were on hand as Australian star Nicole Kidman vowed to keep pushing for gender equality in cinema at an exclusive party on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival in France on Sunday.
“I’m just an advocate and want to continue to keep moving forward with that, with my pledge from 2017, so it ain’t over,” said the Oscar-winning actor at the Women in Motion dinner at Cannes, part of a program set up by luxury group Kering in 2015.
The event took place after Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation partnered with Kering to co-host a conversation with four of the Saudi organization’s “Women in Cinema” honorees —Amina Khalil, Gaya Jiji, Rungano Nyoni and Sarah Taibah on May 16.
Kidman, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours” in 2002, has worked with many of the leading male directors of her generation, but she pledged in 2017 to shoot with a female director every 18 months.
She told journalists in the French Riviera resort town earlier on Sunday that in the eight years since, she’s worked with 27 female directors, including projects in development.
“Part of it is protecting and surrounding the women with almost like a force field of protection and support,” she said.
Other stars at the dinner included Dakota Johnson and Julianne Moore as well as Patrick Schwarzenegger of “The White Lotus.” Director Guillermo del Toro was also in attendance.
Brazilian director Marianna Brennand received the initiative’s emerging talent award, which includes a grant of $55,920 to work on a second feature project.
According to Women in Motion organisers, the share of women directors increased to only 13.6% from 7.5% among the top 100 box office films in the United States between 2015 and 2024.
Seven out of the 22 films in competition this year were made by women, including an entry from Julia Ducournau, one of only three women to have ever won the Palme d’Or top prize.
‘What if this were me?’: Pakistani-Dutch filmmaker amplifies Afghan voices challenging refugee stereotypes
- Anya Raza’s ‘On the Mountain’ captures the dilemma of an Afghan woman teacher, who is caught between love, family and unforgiving realities of the conflict
- The filmmaker urges Pakistan to reconsider its decision to expel Afghan refugees, saying ‘it is very important that they have their basic human rights and dignity’
ISLAMABAD: Anya Raza was in Washington and watched with the whole world in disbelief as the Afghan capital of Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, marking an end to two decades of United States-led intervention.
The chaos that unfolded moved the Pakistani-Dutch writer and filmmaker to reach out to the Afghans, who desperately sought to relocate to safety, as well as humanitarian and other workers involved in the process.
Their tales of love, loss, devastation and despair compelled Raza to document these heart-wrenching stories to humanize the Afghan refugee crisis for the world, which largely seemed to be indifferent to the chaos.
Her film, ‘On the Mountain,’ based on true stories Raza encountered during the interviews, challenges stereotypes and offers a deeply human perspective on the plight of Afghan refugees, according to the filmmaker.
“I interviewed a lot of refugees, people working with refugees, humanitarian workers, case workers, resettlement officers, and others involved. Time and again, I was struck by the sheer devastation, loss, and the immense decisions people had to make just to keep uprooting their families, to keep them safe,” Raza told Arab News, on the sidelines of the Women International Film Festival in Islamabad last week.
“After 20 years of war, the voices of Afghan people weren’t reaching the international stage, despite all the sacrifices they made, despite the destruction. It felt like a way for me to lend my voice as an artist, to break some of the silos.”
The 13-minute film captures the dilemma of an Afghan woman teacher who is caught between love, family and the unforgiving realities of the conflict, forced to make heartbreaking choices.
Set against the backdrop of a turbulent Kabul in 2021, Raza says the film is both a “social and political statement” that challenges stereotypes and biases relating to refugees and offers audiences a chance to reflect on the human characters behind headlines.
“There are a lot of prejudices, biases, and stereotypes when it comes to refugees — their role in communities, how they are perceived,” she said.
“This film is an invitation into an Afghan home, into the love and tough decisions that a family must make. It lets viewers ask, ‘What if this were me?’“
But for Raza, whose work has sparked discussions around identity, nationality and human rights, bringing the film to life was not without challenges.
“For artists, it’s always difficult to secure funding for projects. You might find money, but it’s harder to find people who align with your values,” she said.
The film continues to connect with audiences around the world and evokes powerful emotions and reflections from the attendees at the Islamabad festival.
But despite the effort, the reality has drastically changed for many Afghan refugees since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan and thousands of them fled to Pakistan to seek refuge there, according to the filmmaker.
Today, those same refugees face forced repatriation and are being driven back to the uncertainty they once escaped.
“It breaks my heart to see Afghans who have lived here their whole lives, who felt that Pakistan was their home, [are] now being forced to leave without any of their belongings,” Raza said.
Pakistan has repatriated approximately 1.3 million Afghan refugees in a deportation drive launched since Nov. 2023, according to officials. The drive was launched after Islamabad witnessed a surge in suicide attacks and militancy that it blamed on Afghan nationals, without providing evidence.
The government in Islamabad initially said it was focusing on expelling foreigners with no legal documentation and other categories, such as Afghan Citizen Card (ACC)-- a document launched in 2017 to grant temporary legal status to Afghan refugees— would be included later. This year, Pakistan’s interior ministry asked all ACC holders to leave the country by March and started deporting them from April 1.
In total, Pakistan has hosted over 2.8 million Afghan refugees who crossed the border during 40 years of conflict in their homeland.
Raza urged Islamabad to reconsider its decision to expel Afghan refugees: “It’s very important that they have their basic human rights, their dignity, that they’re safe.”
AlUla a ‘cinematic wonder,’ says exec on 5th anniversary of Saudi Arabia’s Film AlUla
CANNES: AlUla’s natural landscapes are fast becoming a national icon for Saudi Arabia, attracting tourists who wish to experience the scenes for themselves. But since the inception of Film AlUla, the region’s film agency, its sand dunes and historic landmarks have traveled the world through cinema.
As Film AlUla celebrates its fifth anniversary, Acting Executive Director Zaid Shaker sat down with Arab News to discuss the entity’s milestones on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival in France.
“I think that our voice and our positioning (of) Film AlUla as a catalyst in the Saudi film industry has sort of echoed, and now we have amazing infrastructure,” Shaker said.
Only seven years ago, cinemas reopened in the Kingdom after a 35-year ban. The establishment of Film AlUla in early 2020, under the mandate of the Royal Commission of AlUla, has played a hand in cementing Saudi Arabia’s role in the international film industry.
One of Film AlUla’s headlining achievements is Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah,” released in 2023, which became the first Saudi feature film to premiere at Cannes. The film, which followed the story of a young girl in the 1990s with a thirst for artistic expression, featured a crew made up of 40 percent AlUla locals.
This year, first-time director Osama Al Khurayji’s “Siwar” was the opener for the Saudi Film Festival, held at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran in April. The film follows two families, one Saudi and one Turkish, as they navigate societal challenges and personal upheavals. Here, AlUla acts as a stand in for the southern city of Najran and the shoot featured an 80 percent local crew.
Film AlUla executives have long emphasized training the local community as part of their core mission.
The area is home to roughly 65,000 residents, the executive said, and one of the core factors to creating a sustainable film sector is establishing a well-trained local crew. This is done through training programs for capacity-building and skill refinement.
“Whenever we work on attracting an international production, our organic by-product is sort of upskilling the locals so that they can take this forward and start narrating their own stories,” Shaker said.
The entity recently announced a partnership with Manhattan Beach Studios, which operates more than 600 sound stages around the globe, as operators for their local facilities.
“We try to do everything looking at very high quality and the highest of standards… In partnering with MB Studios to manage our cutting-edge, state-of-the-art facilities, we are showing commitment locally, regionally and internationally, that our positioning is real, and that we offer a seamless, advanced experience to every storyteller that comes to AlUla,” Shaker said.
Some of the first major Hollywood productions to shoot in the region were Anthony and Joe Russo’s drama “Cherry,” and Ric Roman Waugh’s “Kandahar,” and others followed. In 2024 alone, AlUla hosted 85 projects, ranging from films and TV series to commercials and music videos.
These productions are largely incentivized by the country’s rebates policies, operated under the umbrella of the Saudi Film Commission and the National Rebate Fund.
“We offer 40 percent rebates and an uplift of 10 percent incentives, which are usually designed based on training programs and marketing efforts,” he said.
This rebate can be elevated to 50 percent when Saudi nationals are employed in key roles within the production.
“AlUla is blessed with a vast, diverse collection of amazing locations. It’s awe inspiring — it’s a cinematic wonder in itself. So part of the attraction and work in bringing productions and building a film sector relies on the sense of location,” Shaker said.
“It’s building on this amazing backdrop, which spans, in its history, more than 200,000 years. The … location has witnessed lots of cultures, lots of civilizations, lots of stories. It’s how we position these amazing, inspiring locations to be pivotal characters in any audio-visual production.”
Women from Pakistan, Middle East showcase powerful themes at international film festival in Islamabad
- Eleven short films from Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Canada, France, Sweden and Spain filmmakers screened at Women International Film Festival
- Women filmmakers explore powerful themes such as conflict, patriarchal oppression, grief and others at ninth edition of international film festival
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani women filmmakers, along with their colleagues from Egypt, Lebanon, and other countries, this week showcased short films focusing on powerful themes such as grief, resistance, and patriarchal oppression at the ninth edition of the Women International Film Festival (WIFF) in Islamabad.
Organized by the Women Through Film community organization that aims to empower women filmmakers by promoting their art, the ninth edition of the festival was hosted at the Islamabad Community Library at the capital city’s I-8 sector on Saturday night.
The open-air event showcased 11 short films from filmmakers hailing from eight countries, namely Pakistan, Canada, Spain, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Sweden, and France. Three of the films were Pakistani productions while the rest were helmed by international filmmakers.
Each film explored profound themes of grief, resistance and patriarchal oppression.
“This was a dream more than a plan— to encourage women to tell their stories,” Madeeha Raza, WIFF’s curator, told Arab News.
“We try to prioritize locally made films, and I am glad we have three Pakistani films this year. The films from Iran and Lebanon touched upon resistance and war and how that affects the lives of normal people,” she said.
“I could resonate with that a lot, which made me choose them.”
The festival also featured panel discussions on filmmaking and the role of women in it. Anya Raza, whose film about an Afghan teacher dealing with the horrors of conflict, was one of the highlights of the festival.
Alongside her on a panel discussion were filmmakers Marya Javad and Nargis Muneeb, co-founder of the Islamabad Film Society. The conversation delved into the power of storytelling to challenge narratives and provide a voice to marginalized communities.
“This platform was created to give women a space to make films and submit them,” Raza explained. “The stories seen as controversial need to be shown more because they break the status quo. They shatter the concept of normalcy and allow people to take meaningful lessons.”
For Ayesha Siddiqa, a 25-year-old marketing professional, WIFF was an “eye-opener.” The Egyptian film ‘If The Cat Is Gone,’ which explored the complexities of friendship and societal judgments, stood out for Siddiqa the most.
“It was a simple story, but it was so relatable,” she told Arab News. “The way it showcased stereotypes we face every day was impressive.”
‘CREATING A COMMUNITY’
The event also offered a valuable networking opportunity for filmmakers. Jawad Sharif, a seasoned award-winning filmmaker, said festivals such as the WIFF are essential for the creative community.
“Such events motivate artists. In a society where stories of grief and struggle are often ignored, festivals like this ensure they are heard,” he said.
“It’s not just about watching films, it’s about creating a community.”
Waghma Feroz, a documentary filmmaker from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said events such as WIFF are crucial for women to highlight their issues.
“If women create films, they often focus on women’s issues or human rights, which are rarely highlighted in mainstream media,” she pointed out. “Events like WIFF allow these stories to be told.”
Raza, whose film ‘On the Mountain’ touched upon the struggles of Afghan refugees, agreed.
“Stories about refugees and the human cost of conflict are rarely given space,” she said. “But they need to be told, and festivals like this ensure they reach the audience.”
Due to limited sponsorship this year, the festival was reduced to a three-hour event, which was far shorter than its previous editions.
Despite the challenges, Raza remained optimistic about the future.
“We’ve had highs and lows. Some editions were very well-supported,” she noted.
“This time we couldn’t garner much support and had to rely on partners. But next year will be our tenth edition, and we hope to make it grand,” she added.
