The Red Sea International Film Festival, the Consulate general of France in Jeddah and Alliance française in KSA announce the two winners of the second edition of their short film competition designed to challenge and support aspiring Saudi and Saudi-resident filmmakers to produce new works. The 48Hr Film Challenge is a collaboration between The Alliance Française of Saudi Arabia, The Consulate General of France in Jeddah, VOX cinemas, and the Red Sea International Film Festival. The 48Hr Film Challenge supports up-and-coming filmmakers (18-25 years old) to write, shoot and produce a short film in just two days.
The challenge, which took place in June, received 103 applications and consisted of two days of mentorship, including a production workshop led by award-winning Saudi producer and director Aymen Khoja, a filmmaking workshop led by Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Barsaoui, a cinematography workshop led by acclaimed Lebanese cinematographer Muriel Aboulrouss, and a scriptwriting workshop led by Greek screenwriter Stavros Raptis.
This was followed by an intensive 48-hours where the selected teams wrote, shot, and edited their short film from scratch, working around a set theme and incorporating additional, ‘surprise’ elements set by the challenge organizers.
The jury was chaired by award winning actor Dhafer L’Abdine as the Head of Jury; other jury members included renowned filmmaker and journalist Wael Abu Mansour and the French filmmaker Claude Mourieras, who founded the cinema school Cinefrabrique. A shortlist was created of 14 finalists, before the two winners were selected.
The Challenge winners
The first winner of the competition is Bright Frame, led by Khaled Zidan, who created the film ‘The Child in His Own Closet’ together with his teammates Abdulaziz Alissa and Khalid Basoudan. The second winner is Night Owls, led by Tala Alharbi, who produced ‘When Red Blooms’ together with Lujain Sallam, Nathali Sarraj, Raghdah Baharith and Madhawi Alyahya.
