Shivani Pandya Malhotra has stepped down as general manager of Saudi Arabia‘s Red Sea Film Festival after playing an instrumental role in building the event from scratch and, over the course of five editions, turning it into one of the Arab world’s most prominent festivals and the top movie market in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region.
The Red Sea fest and market held in city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore, was established in 2019, with its inaugural edition taking place in 2020, two years after Saudi Arabia lifted its 35-year ban on commercial movie theaters.
In its second year, the Red Sea fest hosted nearly 40,000 filmgoers and more than 4,000 film professionals over 10 days in December 2022 and boasted a jury hosted by Oliver Stone. For the 2023 edition, subtitled “Your Story, Your Festival,” Pandya Malhotra and her team secured Baz Luhrmann as president of the jury and a lineup of films including Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters” and director-star Maïwenn’s period drama “Jeanne du Barry,” co-starring Johnny Depp, one of the 170 films supported by the Red Sea Fund. Last year Sean Baker presided over the jury of a star-studded edition of the Red Sea fest that kicked off with Dakota Johnson, Uma Thurman, Ana de Armas, Queen Latifah, Vin Diesel and Michael Caine among stars on the red carpet.
