Saudi Film Festival Opens 12th Edition with Strong Filmmaker Turnout At Ithra

Saudi Film Festival Opens 12th Edition with Strong Filmmaker Turnout At Ithra, the Festival Celebrates the Journey and Opens a Window onto Korean Cinema

DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA, 26 June 2026 – The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), a Saudi Aramco initiative, witnessed on Friday evening the opening of the 12th edition of the Saudi Film Festival, organized by the Cinema Association in partnership with Ithra and supported by the Film Commission. The opening brought together a broad local, regional, and international cultural and artistic presence, with notable participation from filmmakers, film critics, and audiences engaged with cinema and visual culture.

Held from June 26 to July 2, 2026, this year’s edition takes place under the theme “Every Story is, a Journey,” celebrating film as an extended journey that begins with the unease of an idea and the writing process, moves through the challenges of production, and arrives at the moment of screening, where audiences encounter the image.

The edition officially opened on the Ithra Theater stage, marking the start of a week of screenings, professional programs, seminars, and encounters that bring filmmakers and audiences together in a renewed cinematic and cultural space.

The opening ceremony was presented by actor Faisal Al-Doukhi and media personality Soha Al-Waal, in an evening that celebrated the festival’s journey and this year’s theme, with its reflections on the journey of the film, the journey of its maker, and the audience’s journey with image and story.

The festival opened with the Saudi short documentary *King of the Shoulders*, directed by Maram Al-Khaldi. The film explores the Saudi bisht as a symbol of identity and dignity, tracing its meticulous craftsmanship and its presence at major international occasions, through a visual treatment that revisits a Saudi cultural element deeply rooted in memory and collective sentiment.

The ceremony featured a speech by Tariq Khawaji, Deputy Festival Director and Cultural Advisor at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), representing Ithra, and a speech by Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Ghannam, Chairman of the Cinema Association. Both addressed the festival’s role in supporting Saudi cinema, broadening cultural and knowledge exchange, and enabling filmmakers to access wider spaces for screening, dialogue, and development.

In the Cinema Association’s address, Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Ghannam recalled the festival’s beginnings, noting: “Seventeen years ago, the Saudi Film Festival began its journey with a story that believed cinema had a role beyond the screen: it preserves memory, documents transformations, and gives people the chance to see themselves and the world around them through new eyes. Since then, the festival has remained a space where ideas, experiences, and dreams converge, and a platform that supports talent and advances cinematic dialogue and knowledge.”

Tariq Khawaji noted that the Saudi Film Festival comes as an extension of Ithra’s commitment to supporting the filmmaking ecosystem and empowering national talent. Films supported by the center have reached 162 international film festivals around the world, presenting 85 Saudi films across fiction, documentary, and virtual reality, and winning 56 international awards in 33 countries. These figures reflect the scale of Ithra’s continued investment in developing Saudi cinematic content and strengthening its global presence, rooted in the center’s belief that local stories capable of expressing their identity with honesty are the most capable of reaching the world.

Khawaji also announced the opening of funding applications for filmmakers across 12 funding categories covering short and feature-length films, both fiction and documentary.
The 12th edition honors Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour in recognition of a cinematic career that helped open a wider space for the Saudi story in Arab and international film landscapes, continuing the festival’s tradition of celebrating influential figures in cinema and culture.
Al Mansour is regarded as one of the prominent names in Saudi and Arab cinema. She began her career with the short film *Who?* in 1997, before gaining major recognition with her feature film *Wadjda* in 2012, a milestone in the trajectory of Saudi film. She has since continued to direct local and international works that have established her as one of the influential Saudi cinematic voices.

The festival received 314 submissions for its 12th edition, including 249 films and 65 Production Market projects. A total of 27 films were selected to compete in the official competitions, alongside six films in the parallel screenings, bringing the festival’s program to 50 films from more than 15 countries.
The selected films are competing for nine Golden Palm awards across the feature, short, and documentary competitions, within a program that opens space for Saudi, Gulf, Arab, and international cinematic experiences.
The 12th edition’s film program includes the feature film competition, short film competition, and documentary film competition, in addition to parallel screenings and special programs that allow audiences to engage with diverse cinematic works across themes, styles, and artistic approaches.

As part of its efforts to expand cultural and knowledge exchange with global cinematic experiences, the festival presents “Spotlight on Korean Cinema” in collaboration with the Busan International Short Film Festival, following previous editions that celebrated cinematic experiences including Indian and Japanese cinema.

The edition’s theme is also reflected programmatically through the “Cinema of the Journey” section, in an extension that intersects with what is known in cinema as the road movie. The section features Arab and international feature and short films, and is accompanied by masterclasses and parallel programs exploring themes of travel, movement, the discovery of place, and the transformations that journeys create within characters and stories.
This year’s Production Market hosts 13 Saudi and Arab projects in various stages of development and production, selected from 65 submitted projects. The market provides a professional space for filmmakers to connect with producers, experts, and production companies, while supporting projects as they move through development, production, and post-production.
The Production Market projects include feature films, short projects, and documentaries, reinforcing the market’s role as a professional platform for enabling film projects and building bridges between talent, supporting entities, and producers.

The festival’s cultural and professional program includes specialized seminars, masterclasses, training workshops, signing sessions for publications from the Saudi Cinema Encyclopedia, and the “Meet the Experts” program, which offers filmmakers one-on-one sessions with specialists in production, directing, editing, criticism, festival programming, and project development.
This edition’s seminars address topics related to transformations in the film industry, spaces of support and funding, Korean cinema and its relationship with Saudi audiences, the performance of Saudi films at the box office, and the experiences of low-budget filmmaking, reflecting the range of professional and cultural questions the festival brings forward this year.
Since its launch in 2008, the Saudi Film Festival has maintained its place as one of the Kingdom’s earliest cinematic initiatives, serving as a platform for supporting local production, advancing knowledge exchange, and opening windows onto film experiences from around the world.