DUBAI: Arab celebrities took to the red carpet and global names showed off designs from the Middle East as US Palestinian Dutch model Bella Hadid won the model of the year award during the Fashion Awards 2022 at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday night.
Lebanese influencer and entrepreneur Alice Abdel Aziz hit the red carpet in a Fall/Winter 2022 ensemble by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, complete with delicate feathers on the shoulders.
British actress Saffron Hocking and British model Munroe Bergdorf showed off glittering gowns by Lebanese Italian designer Tony Ward. Hocking opted for a sparkling silver column gown, while Bergdorf upped the ante in a larger-than-life royal blue gown emblazoned with silver embellishments.
Alice Abdel Aziz hit the red carpet in an ensemble by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini. (Getty Images)
Hadid was not on hand to receive the prestigious prize, but she did give an on-screen acceptance speech.
Meanwhile, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli won the designer of the year prize, which was presented to Piccioli by British actress Florence Pugh who was dressed in a backless gown in Valentino’s signature red.
“To me fashion has a responsibility, I feel (I) have a voice and I want to use my voice even for who doesn’t have a voice,” Piccioli told Reuters on the red carpet before the awards.
Saffron Hocking showed off a glittering gown by Lebanese Italian designer Tony Ward. (Getty Images)
Other winners included Yvon Chouinard, founder of outerwear brand Patagonia, who received the outstanding achievement award.
In September, Chouinard said he was giving away the apparel company to a trust that will use its profit to fight the climate crisis. British brand Burberry won the metaverse world and gaming experience award for its ventures into the virtual world.
The red carpet was as glamorous as the ceremony, with stars from around the world putting their best foot forward. Dramatic trains were championed by more than one famous face, with model Adut Akech opting for a train-heavy look by designer Nensi Dojaka as Kristen McMenamy followed suit in a Valentino number while British model Jourdan Dunn showed off a look by Stephane Rolland. British supermodel Naomi Campbell wore a caped shimmering gown by Valentino, complete with ruching on the bodice.
JEDDAH: An outdoor cinema overlooking the Jeddah waterfront has been set up to screen restored classic movies as part of the Red Sea International Film Festival. The setting is reminiscent of the 70’s when “Cinema Alhosh,” meaning backyard cinemas, were common in Saudi Arabia.ac Cinephiles can grab popcorn from the Vox kiosk, cozy up in a bean bag and enjoy movies such as “Love in Karnak” (1965) and “Watch out for Zouzou” (1972). Antoine Khalife, the head of the Arab program and film classics at RSIFF, said that movies for the outdoor cinema were chosen with Jeddah’s audience in mind. “‘Watch out for Zouzou’ came out 50 years ago, it was produced in 1972 and we are in 2022, so for us, it was amazing to do the restoration. A lot of people, maybe your mom and aunts, watched it on TV, and they love Soad Hosny or the songs. “We decided on something light, nice … and at the same time it is a masterpiece and a film that is very modern,” said Khalife. Khalife said that he wanted to remind people that the festival was for the public, for a large audience, and for the people of Saudi Arabia. “They can meet the directors, the stars, the actors, and it is not just a place for professionals,” he added. He said that many amazing movies await the people and that he was looking forward to the public response. Amna Khalid, a 25-year-old Egyptian, who watched the first screening of “Watch out for Zouzou” said: “When my mom moved to Jeddah after she got married, she said she would watch this movie all the time with my dad. “So when I saw there was a screening, I rushed to watch it. I don’t think the story even matters to me, the movie makes me feel warm inside because of how many childhood memories I have of it.”
JEDDAH: Fatih Akin, the renowned German director of Turkish descent, has made dramatic cinema his calling card with films like “Head-On,” “The Edge of Heaven” and “In the Fade,” and his Red Sea offering “Rheingold” is just as exhilarating.
First premiered at the Venice Film Festival and based on events in German rapper Xatar’s 2015 autobiography “All or Nothing,” Akin's movie begins on a gruesome note.
The first 20 minutes are intense with Xatar (Giwar Hajabi), played by Emilio Sakraya, being brutalized in a Syrian prison in 2010 by fellow inmates, who want to know where stolen gold is hidden.
This takes Xatar back to childhood memories of his composer father Eghbal (Kardo Razzazi) being jailed at the beginning of the Iranian revolution in 1979.
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We are then swiftly taken through the terrifying Khomeini regime, the father’s plight and the spirit of his mother Rasal (Mona Prizad) who, following Xatar’s birth, declares: “Your name will be Giwar, born of suffering.”
“Rheingold” then takes us to Paris in 1986, and to Bonn where Xatar’s refugee family struggles to make a life out of misfortune.
The father abandons his family, leaving Xatar to assume a mountain of responsibility. He wanders into petty crime and drug dealing which results in him spending time at a Cologne juvenile detention center.
The man who emerges hits a reckless path to give his earlier tormentors a hard time.
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A post shared by Emilio Sakraya (@emilio_sakraya_)
In Amsterdam he sells drugs and falls in love with his old neighbor Shirin (Sogol Faghani). If she and his supportive mother are constants in his life, there is one more: his love for music, inherited from his father.
Xatar’s resolve to start his own label, and his desperate attempts to finance it, land him in a Syrian prison, and it is only after eight years that he walks out a reformed man.
Akin uses his trademark style of snappy montages, slow motion and freeze-frames to take us on a whirlwind trip through Xatar’s life.
He never lets go of his swagger, even in his darkest moments, steering us through 140 minutes of a strange yet riveting narrative.
JEDDAH: Regional TV entertainment company OSN is to produce Saudi filmmaker Ahd Kamel’s work “My Driver & I,” in association with the Red Sea Fund, MAD Solutions, the UK Global Screen Fund, and production companies Corniche Media and Caspian Films, both of which are also based in the UK.
The production partnership was announced at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Al-Balad, Jeddah, on Tuesday.
Written and directed by award-winning Kamel, the film is co-produced by Jeddah-based companies Yellow Camel and Millimeter. The film will air on OSNtv and stream on OSN+.
MAD Solutions will hold all international distribution rights outside Arab-speaking territories.
“My Driver & I” is set in Jeddah in the 1980s and 90s and follows the story of Salma, a young Saudi girl from an affluent family, and Gamar, a young Sudanese man.
Gamar moves to Jeddah after being employed as Salma’s driver, and their relationship quickly develops into an intimate friendship that lasts throughout her teenage years and beyond. It is a story of independence and finding family in the most unexpected places.
The film's cast includes Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak, Saudi rapper Quasai Kheder, Sudanese actor Mostafa Shahata, and Saudi actor Baraa Alem.
Kamel said: “I have been developing ‘My Driver & I’ for several years and I wanted to base the film on my memories of Jeddah.
“The film tackles a discourse around a specific trend in Saudi households where servants come to be part of the family, and a universal journey of the Saudi girl.”
Joe Kawkabani, CEO of OSN, told Arab News: “OSN has been a broadcaster, but entering production is a whole new experience.
“To excel in the area, we believe it is important to work with local and regional companies that have the experience, and work at the grassroots level with talent which in turn can help us to produce and get to the level that we want to achieve.
“And this is one of the collaborations with MAD Solutions and Ahd Kamel that we’re very excited about.”
Kawkabani added: “There is a massive opportunity for Saudi youngsters and Arab talents in general. At OSN we are working hard to give them the voice and a platform to outshine.”
Alaa Karkouti, CEO and co-founder of MAD Solutions, and the Arab Cinema Center, said: “We always believe in supporting and encouraging talents in the MENA region.
“We worked on Ahd Kamel’s short film ‘Sanctity’ earlier and it was the first Saudi film to be selected for the Berlin International Film Festival.
“She is one of the most talented people to work with and we look forward to a positive collaboration.
“This movie is a real example of different nationalities working together, and the film has already attracted the attention of several companies around the world.”
Sheikha Al-Zain S. Al-Sabah, Vice-Chairperson of OSN, commenting on the collaboration, said, “This was very much needed in our part of the world, we feel that it will see the growth for further developments or projects that require co-productions on all ends, and allow for the extra building of a viable content and value chain while adding hope and inspiration to a lot of storytellers, visual storytellers, moving forward within the region.”
Al-Sabah stated that OSN has been on the sidelines for some time and hence, this was the right time for OSN to start their own IP, and partake in the creation and development of projects that they find to be both interesting and thought provoking and easily universal in scope.
Additionally, she stated that there is an exciting roster coming up for 2023 with many film and TV projects, all OSN originals, in progress.
JEDDAH: On the sidelines of the Red Sea International Film Festival festivities, the French animation veteran Michel Ocelot sat down with his audience during one of the festival’s “In Conversation” sessions at Red Sea Mall in Jeddah on Dec. 6.
Ocelot, 79, is a writer, designer, storyboard artist, and director of an array of legendary animated feature films and mostly he is recognized for his “Kirikou et la sorcière” released in 1998 which translates to "Kirikou and the witch" and also his amazing animation "Azur and Asmar: The Princes' Quest" released in 2006.
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“Kirikou et la sorcière” resampled the rebirth era of French animation in the cinema and it was a striking start for Ocelot’s artistic career who is strongly passionate about what he produced. “I know what I want, I’m doing it and I love it,” he said.
The animation art and drawings of Kirikou et la sorcière were fully handmade and the film was the boom for his animation career, Ocelot said that before this film come to life, he was just an artist.
“The life of a movie artist who doesn't exist much was very hard. But all of a sudden, I have an international success.”
He continued: “They are handmade and handmade, with not much money, it's part of that you can see somebody did them, not a company, not board of director, and literally like this, I discovered this parallel life of animation, little things are done in one's kitchen, but they exist.”
Ocelot is a role model for experts and emerging animation artists as the brilliance in his work will always remain a great inspiration for many generations, as his work is always nurtured by a visual atmosphere. “Kids who were kids at the time now adults, and come to me and thank me. And sometimes they cry. So, I'm lucky.”
Despite his true success, Ocelot has been through hard times, and that is what made him an outstanding expert in the field.
“It was hard to find my way because when I started animation didn't really exist, people wouldn’t know about this name. They were no real schools to learn from, and I had to go to a lab to emulate the process, where you have to have a camera, light, an editing table, and all that was expensive and out of my reach. So, I lost quite some time I learned by myself. But as I didn't go to any school, I'm still completely innocent and don't know how I'm feeling so amazing. I just made them.”
“I think I started at the year of one or two, I took a pencil and I drew and I never stopped. And then I was a happy child and I was always active. And I think I prepared myself for my job from my infancy. And I would draw in paint and cut and get into a disguise and decorate the house for the festivals and make a little gift with a nice package. And that's, my vision today”
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He had a very interesting childhood as he has been raised in Africa, Kenya where his vibrant animation is inspired by its “Beautiful and benevolent people.”
“I remember the beauty of the people and the dresses of women on festival days, it was definitely intelligent. True elegance, happy elegance, and the details within which made my infancy in the world of animation special.”
Ocelot's extravagant animation made him a former president of the International Animated Film Association, as he had been moving between two countries with huge cultural and historic differences shaping his artistic style as his animation reflects a lot about great Africa from his personal perspective.
“I was at ease in those universities. So, I was never expatriates that didn't exist in my vocabulary. So that's always been a great part of my life. Being aware of different worlds and being at ease with them and being at ease with such different parts of the world. I can put myself in the place of other people easily and I know the relatability of things.”
Ocelot shared some of his career fundamentals when it comes to following an animation production career including commitment, sticking to original ideas is key, and leaving fear behind is a must.
“Give everything you have. Try not to listen to bad advice. Sometimes you get good advice, but it's better not to follow them. Don't be afraid to start.”
His new animation feature film that has been released earlier this year. “The Black Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess” was screened for the audience after the conversation.
RIYADH: “Slave,” a sci-fi thriller, premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2022 this week and the film’s executive producer and director gave a glimpse of what went behind the scenes.
“It is impossible for me to make another film in which I will have strong feelings like this movie because many of the events in this movie happened to me in real life or in a similar way,” said Mansour Assad. “The movie is a story that I have wanted to tell people for a long time.”
The main cast of the film comprises Mohammed Ali, Khairiah Abulaban, and Ziyad Alamri.
The film tells the story of a man named Sakker and his wife, Latifa who made a movie that resulted in anger and backlash from society.
Sakker was then presented with an option to continue living his life the way it is with society enraged at him and his wife or travel back in time to appease his community.
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“He is a slave to his family, friends, and people. He cares about their opinion and the opinion of society, and he cannot settle anything unless society approves of it, so he is a slave to society,” Assad explained.
Sakker decides to return back in time to conform to the expectations of his community but then finds himself stuck in an endless time loop, becoming a slave to societal norms.
“The name of the movie is ‘Slave’ because it’s bold. The filming method is bold, in which the colors are blue, pink, blue, and red. Everyone who wears these colors is considered strange,” Assad said.
“The story is bold. We did not adhere to the traditional boundaries of stories we are used to. The story is long and contains science fiction … it requires double the effort of a traditional film.”
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The director explained that the filming of each scene was intricate and detailed, requiring comprehensive training to ensure authenticity in the situations.
“The film had many different scenes, some were action scenes others drama that required specific training. Every time we filmed a specific scene, there was a lot of training behind it,” Assad said.
“Sometimes we would go to the main character's apartment, Alamri and we would both just sit there alone and practice the different scenes.”
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Assad highlighted that one of the film’s scenes took place in a hospital where one of the characters was being treated. Before filming the scene, the director brought in a doctor specializing in the condition the patient faced in order to give insights into mannerisms, treatment, and condition.
“The doctor gave us advice on the condition, and the equipment in the hospital used to treat the patient on the scene. Every detail was focused on from the way the doctor spoke to the appearance and all of the details around him. Each scene we filmed required this intense level of training,” Assad said.
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The film, which began shooting in October 2021 and concluded in August 2022, was shot in Riyadh. The filming phase of the movie took 9 days only but was filmed in three phases throughout the year to acquire funding as the filming process progressed.
“The time of writing the script and filming the scenes was different in this film, firstly I wanted to create this film without waiting for anyone. I wanted to work on it, I didn’t want to wait until I received support or funding, or when I became a better director. I wanted to create this film whether it turns out good or bad, I wanted more experience to do feature films,” Assad said.
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A post shared by Khairiah Abulaban (@kh_abulaban)
“I began the film without any support and we filmed in three phases, each phase we would finish and edit the film and then go acquire funding by showing the producer or fenders what we completed,” he added.
The director’s advice to budding filmmakers is to start independently and not to wait for formal funding or support to come to them.
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“Start your project yourself and make mistakes. People aren't going to judge you because they'll know that you did everything yourself so they will overlook many of your mistakes in the film.
“You as a filmmaker will also gain more experience, when you go to an entity that has a fund they will be more confident in you because you made a film.
“Make your first film and make it with the lowest budget you possibly can, you'll gain experience, and people won't judge your mistakes, everyone wins,” he said.
“I am waiting for the feedback and responses from audiences and critics, real and authentic responses. I don't need them to support me by flattering me. Or to say that they enjoyed the film when they didn't I want to hear all of their criticisms and observations, no matter how strong the criticism is, I don't get upset because this is going to help me,” the director said.