On the eve of the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (5-14 December), Cineuropa sat down with Ryan Ashore, who heads up one of its industry programmes: the Red Sea Labs. Its leading section, the Red Sea Lodge, run in partnership with the TorinoFilmLab, invites 12 projects each year for development training. This year’s line-up includes three co-productions with Europe. Ashore explains what has changed this year, and shares some of the platform’s success stories.

Cineuropa: What is new this year in the Red Sea Labs and the Red Sea Lodge?
Ryan Ashore: Just to help people understand, first of all, I'd like to say that the Red Sea Labs fall under the Red Sea Foundation, and it’s something that takes place throughout the year, including during the festival. We started with one programme, the Red Sea Lodge, but now, we have expanded in terms of both the number of programmes and the regions that can apply for the Lodge and other strands. We started with Saudi Arabian projects, and last year, we included African projects; this year, we have included Asian ones.

The expansion did not stop at the Lodge, though. Our TV SeriesLab, in partnership with Film Independent, includes Asian and African projects as well, and we had seven projects this year. As you have probably heard, last year, we had a programme for series. It was only for Saudis, and that was like “year one”. We wanted to iron out all the bugs and see what we could modify so that we could open it up to the wider region. We started speaking with Film Independent, and we decided to enter into this fruitful partnership, so we began our sessions online. The participants went to LA, and they had their first in-person workshop that came after the Film Independent Forum, which gave them the chance to mingle and meet with a lot of industry experts. Then, they had multiple online touchpoints, and now they're here in Jeddah, starting today, to finalise work on their projects because they're going to be pitching their TV series on 8 December.

Can you tell us a bit about the role of European partners in the programme?
Of course – because cinema has been a huge pillar in Europe, be it as a form of entertainment or an artform. We do have a partnership with Europe. From the lab's perspective, we have many mentors that come, hailing from Europe. We have our TorinoFilmLab partnership that started five years ago, and we are celebrating that fifth anniversary this year. We have a huge number of European producers and industry experts coming in throughout the year, and specifically during the festival as well. Many of the Arab, African or Asian films are produced or co-produced by Europeans.

It's the fifth edition of the Red Sea Lodge. With 12 projects selected per year, you’ve already supported 48 of them. Are there any success stories that you can share?
Absolutely. I would start with Inshallah a Boy [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], as it was the first entry from Jordan to be screened at Cannes. Later, it went on to other major festivals, and over 30 regional and international screens. It was also premiered at cinemas in Saudi Arabia at one point. The success was massive, and Amjad Al Rasheed made a name for himself just from his first feature. He is one of our community members now. Once you become part of one of our programmes, you'll be part of that big family. There's another film called Arzé, directed by Mira Shaib. It premiered at Tribeca, then went on to festivals in Beijing and Cairo, where it won awards. Producer Louay Khraish was developing it at the Lodge. And now, he is our partner from Film Independent. He's the one managing the SeriesLab.

Also, there is a Jordanian film called Boomah by writer-director Zaid Abu Hamdan, which participated in the first edition. And he made Daughters of Abdul-Rahman, which premiered at the first Red Sea International Film Festival. Now, he's coming back with a film that he has developed with the Red Sea Lodge. We really have high hopes, as we visited the set in Jordan.

There is Aisha Can't Fly Away Anymore by Morad Mostafa, which was in Final Cut in Venice this year. Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo by Khaled Mansour screened at Venice and is going to be played here at Red Sea this year. The Settlement by Mohamed Rashad is in production, and there was a Saudi film, Within Sand by Moe Alatawi, shown at Red Sea two years ago. We're trying to do as much as we can in terms of pushing these projects to be made, whether it be introducing them to industry experts or different producers or co-producers, or writing a letter of intent for other funds.