Entries open for Saudi Film Festival 2008-2024

Deadline: 12 January 2025

The Saudi Film Festival is a cultural cinematic event that presents many cultural programs in the cinema sector through film screenings, training workshops, cultural seminars, advanced lessons, a production market, and a project competition.

This cultural cinematic movement aims to develop creative human wealth by nurturing and encouraging talents in the film industry. The festival is committed to achieving these goals by organizing the Cinema Association in Al-Khobar, the partner of Ithra Center, and with the support of the Film Commission of the Ministry of Culture.

The essence of this mission is to emphasize the importance of cultural diversity in the Kingdom and export it to the world through films, in addition to encouraging the discovery of new cinematic voices and visions.

Categories

Documentary Film Competition
Short Narrative Film Competition
Feature Film Competition
Unexecuted Screenplay Competition
Production Market Projects Competition

Eligibility Criteria

Documentary Film Competition/Short Narrative Film Competition/Feature Film Competition
Basic conditions:
- The film must be Saudi (director, producer or subject), or a film by a citizen of one of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
- The film must be produced after January 1, 2022.
- The film must not have been submitted to participate in the festival in previous sessions.
- The registration form must be completed and the final version of the film submitted.
- It should not be a television programme or a separate episode within a serial programme.
- The director is not allowed to participate in more than two films.
- The festival has the right to keep the film accepted for the competition and distribute it for public viewing after the festival, after notifying the film’s rights holder.
- The festival has the right to reject any film or refer it to be screened outside the competition without giving reasons.
- No film submitting to participate has the right to withdraw without the approval of the festival.
- The intellectual property rights to any film or any part thereof are the responsibility of the entrant.
Unexecuted Screenplay Competition
- Basic conditions:
  - The scenario must be Saudi (writer or subject).
  - The scenario must be submitted in Arabic, and must be written by a single writer or shared by two writers at most.
  - The writer must submit his/her application to participate. The script must not have been previously purchased or produced.
  - The intellectual property rights of the scenario shall be the responsibility of the co-writer. If the scenario is based on someone else’s life story or adapted from another author, legal documents must be submitted that grant the applicant the right to do so.
  - The applicant is not entitled to participate with more than one scenario.
Production Market Projects Competition
- Participation Terms:
  - The submission must contain people from the following roles (producer, writer, or director).
  - At least one of the following roles must be of Saudi nationality (producer, writer or director).
  - It is permissible for a person to play more than one of the following roles (producer, writer, or director), provided that the submission is not less than two people.
  - The application must meet the registration requirements for the production market mentioned above.
  - The project must contain a complete text (even if it is in preliminary versions).
  - The project must be for a feature film, short film, documentary or animation.
  - TV show projects or separate episodes within a serial program are not accepted.
  - The project must not be a TV series, whether documentary or drama.
  - No more than two projects are allowed to participate.
  - The festival has the right to keep the submitted project for archiving only, and it will not be shared with any other party or individuals except with the written consent of the project owner.
  - The festival has the right to reject any project without giving reasons.
  - The intellectual property of any project or part thereof is the responsibility of the person or entity providing the project.

Application Requirements

Documentary Film Competition/Short Narrative Film Competition/Feature Film Competition
- Technical conditions for films:
  - The duration of the short film in the competition should not exceed 39 minutes.
  - The length of the feature film in the competition must not be less than 40 minutes.
  - Fill out the participation form through the registration page with all required materials.
  - It is necessary to include English subtitles for Arabic-language films within the film, in addition to the necessity of including Arabic subtitles for English-language films in part or all of them.
  - It is necessary to fill out and attach a list of the names of the staff to the registration form.
  - Attaching an mp4 or ProRes version with subtitles and a non-subtitled version of the movie is mandatory while submitting through the form.
  - The DCP copy of the film is optional when applying through the form. If the film is nominated for screening, the DCP copy is mandatory for the participant.
  - The final release version of the movie must be in DCP Flat 1998×1080 (1.85/Flat) format with subtitles.
  - Recommended codecs: H.264 with a minimum bitrate of 10MBit/s and a maximum of 15MBit/s.
  - Image quality: (1920×1080 pixels) or higher progressive, 23.976fps.
  - Audio specifications: 48kHz PCM (uncompressed only), AAC, MP3 160kbps or higher.
  - File specifics: Only multi-tasking files (video, audio and subtitles in one file) are accepted. File size must not exceed 15 GB per movie. The better the image quality, the better the digital conversion quality.
  - Attach the movie poster, made vertically, 27×40 inch, 61×91 CM, 2592×3940 pixels.
  - The owners of the rights to participating films are required to ensure that the film has been selected for screening at the Saudi Film Festival, and to mention the award (if winning) on the outer cover of the DVD or the film’s advertising posters and within the film’s credits.
Unexecuted Screenplay Competition
- The number of pages for a short scenario must not exceed 39 pages, and the number of pages for a long scenario must not be less than 40 pages.
- Scenarios and subscription forms are accepted by filling out the electronic form on the registration page in (pdf) format, using the Simplified Arabic font, size 14.
- The festival has the right to print the scenario in one of the festival’s upcoming books after a written agreement with the scenario writer.
- Incomplete applications will be automatically disqualified without notification.
- Participation information cannot be modified after filling out the participation form on the website.
- The registration form must include the following documents: “Summary. Treatment. Writer’s vision. Scenario.
  - Process the scenario, so that it does not exceed two pages for a short scenario and 10 pages for a long scenario.
  - Screenplay Document. “Cover page, including screenplay name and draft number.”
  - Summary document.
  - The writer’s vision is that it should not exceed 400 word.
Production Market Projects Competition
- Before you begin, make sure you have the following information and requirements:
  - Movie script
- Project presentation file, which must contain the following:
  - The idea of the film is brief (not more than two lines).
- Synopsis:
  - A text document that describes the entire story of the film in a brief manner (not exceeding one A4 page).
- Cinematic Vision:
  - A textual description discussing the motivation behind telling this particular story, the dramatic paths of the film, a description of the characters and their influence in driving the events of the film. (No more than two A4 pages)
- Visual processing:
  - Contains reference images to approximate the visual image of the film. It may contain scenes from similar films, drawings, photographs or color blocks. (Does not exceed two A4 pages)
- Core Team Bio:
  - The project must have a producer, writer and director, and each person’s bio must be listed (it is okay for one person to play more than one role, provided that the submission is no less than two people)
- Production Plan:
  - This section should contain a list of the proposed staff, production phases with expected dates.
- Budget:
  - The total budget of the film with a preliminary list of the film’s phase budget.
- Product Keyword:
  - The product’s descriptive word about the project.
- Director’s Word:
  - The director’s introductory word about the project.
- Current stage of the project:
  - Development, production, post-production
- Project Presenter Title:
  - Producer, Director, Writer
- Project Presenter Title:
  - Producer, Director, Writer
- Did the project participate in other laboratories:
  - Mention the names of the laboratories
  - Full film script or treatment.