The Saudi Film Commission signed a $10 million deal last week for 28 film-related projects, which will be executed by the winners of 2020’s Daw competition. The projects will include the development of scripts and production for the short and feature length films created by the winners. It was in February 2020 that the winners of the four categories of the competition were announced by the Saudi Film Commission.
Eleven entrants were rewarded in the short film category, eight in the feature-length film category, six in the script-development category, two in the completed long films category, and three in the student category.
The British Council's “Saudi Film Skills Research” pointed out that 34 percent of Saudi filmmakers under 30 are women https://t.co/sFDnQkR3Sn
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) December 7, 2020
CEO of the commission, filmmaker Abdullah Al-Qahtani, thanked Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, the minister of culture and chairman of the commission’s board of directors, for his support of the arts and cultural projects – such as the Daw competition and he stated, “Applications for Daw went through five stages of qualification, nomination and arbitration, and concluded with the announcement of the winners. But the competition does not end here, for the production phase for these 28 projects has begun, funded by nearly SR40 million.”
“To now have my film selected to represent Saudi Arabia as the official Oscar entry, especially as an Arab female director, has surpassed any expectations I had for this project,” said director Shahad Ameen.https://t.co/OorI5uYpOn
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) December 23, 2020
The Saudi Film Commission had launched the Daw competition in September 2019 in order to support and give life to Saudi cinema as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 Quality of life Program.
The competition was launched in a bid to aid the development of Saudi’s emerging arts, culture and film scene and to encourage and empower local talent so that their creations could be presented on regional and international platforms. The competition also established a sustainable way for films made in Saudi Arabia to be financed.
