Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, the most prominent film event and market in the Arab world, has canceled its sixth edition that was scheduled to take place from Dec. 3 to 12.
The event will return in the fourth quarter of 2027 with a “renewed vision and a program that continues to celebrate cinema and filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the region and around the world,” according to a press release.
“The decision follows a comprehensive review of a range of considerations relating to the timing of the next edition, including the logistical requirements involved in staging an international event of this scale,” the release continues. “It reflects the [Red Sea Film] Foundation’s commitment to ensuring the Festival takes place at the right time and under the right conditions to deliver the experience for which the Red Sea International Film Festival has become known.”
Earlier this year, the Saudi Arabian Formula One Grand Prix auto race, scheduled to take place at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit from April 17 to April 19, was canceled due to the fallout from the war in Iran.
Saudi Arabia is currently facing a sharp escalation in its conflict with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have targeted several Saudi cities. Last week, Saudi officials said they had shot down a Houthi drone near Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, which is located roughly 50 miles from Jeddah. The Houthis have been targeting oil production infrastructure in the Saudi kingdom, which supports Yemen’s government, and oil shipments on the Red Sea.
The decision to cancel the fest’s 2026 edition is believed to have been taken by the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation in tandem with Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan.
The Red Sea fest and market 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. The event has since grown to become a cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a major international film and TV hub, which in turn is touted as a pole of the country’s 2030 strategy aimed at opening the country up and shifting the economy away from a reliance on oil.
Last year’s edition of the Red Sea Fest was also the first one held under the watch of Saudi Arabian film industry pioneer Faisal Baltyuor (pictured above), who in May 2025 was appointed CEO of the Red Sea Foundation that oversees the festival as well as the Red Sea Fund and its year-round Red Sea Labs.
The Red Sea Fund and Red Sea Labs will continue despite the festival’s cancellation, Monday’s announcement stated, and year-round programming at Culture Square in Jeddah will be introduced in November to establish it as an “ongoing destination for film screenings, cultural events and specialized film industry programs.”
Sean Baker presided over the jury of a star-studded 2025 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.
The Red Sea Film Festival’s film market, known as the Red Sea Souk, saw senior executives from major Hollywood players such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and regional giant MBC head to Jeddah to take part in dozens of panels.
Sitting a year out will allow Red Sea Film Festival to undergo a necessary re-organization following the exit in June of its general manager, former Dubai Film Festival manager Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who had played an instrumental role in building the event from scratch. Her position remains to be replaced.
It is believed that Baltyuor’s vision for the fest going forward clashed with Pandya Malhotra’s mode of operation, according to sources.
Speaking at the recent Lumiere Summit in France, where global industry leader convened to explore the future of film, Baltyuor underlined in a speech that the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation “is not just a festival,” as he put it. “The foundation is building an ecosystem,” the Red Sea chief added, noting that he had just come from the Venice Film Festival where the selection comprised 11 films from the region supported by the Red Sea fund and that there were also eight Arab films supported by the fund in Toronto.
One big question is: where will the Arab films that had been slated to have their regional premieres at Red Sea (that is a prerequisite to get Red Sea funding) now get their Middle East fest launch?
The Marrakech Film Festival, which runs Nov. 20-28 — and also features a robust regional market — will certainly absorb some of these Arab titles. Other options for regional premieres will be the nascent new-format Doha Film Festival that will run Nov. 19-27, almost concurrently to Marrakech. Then there is also Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival, running Oct. 15-23, and the Cairo Film Festival slated to take place Nov. 11-20.
Next year, the Red Sea Fest will have to compete with the revived Dubai International Film Festival that will hold its first edition starting Dec. 8, 2027.
Though the Red Sea Fest’s one-year hiatus is certainly bad news for the Arab film industry and for international film executives interested in doing business in Saudi, the pause will allow the event to be properly reconfigured according to the vision of Baltyuor. He has been a driving force in the Saudi film industry ever since a religion-related ban on cinema was lifted in late 2017, holding posts as the first head of Ithra Cinema, which is financed by Saudi Aramco Oil Company, and then by founding and running Saudi distributor CineWaves Films, which has the biggest library of Saudi films, as well as holding the post of CEO at Muvi Studios, the production arm of Saudi’s biggest cinema chain.
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