The festival will present a wide variety of activities and events, aimed at including younger festival goers, apart from the Arab premiere screenings.

The much-anticipated film festival in the Middle East is all set to take place from December 6 to 15, 2021 and the festival just announced its line-up for the Red Sea: Next Generation section.

The section will feature five feature films and a selection of shorts that will see feature productions created for younger audiences, shining a spotlight on animation films, dramas, and documentaries from all around the world.

The festival will present a wide variety of activities and events, aimed at including younger festival-goers, apart from the Arab premiere screenings.

written and directed by award-winning British director Garth Jennings, the event will see the Arab premiere of Illumination’s highly anticipated animated feature ‘Sing 2.’ Voiced by Matthew McConaughey, the film sees his performers preparing to launch a stage extravaganza. The film also stars Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton among others.

Talking about the lineup in the section, artistic director Edouard Waintrop in a statement said, “We are proud to put such a strong focus on young people’s cinema at the festival. It is so important to us at the RedSeaIFF to remain inclusive of young people, given that these young people will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping the burgeoning Saudi film industry as it progresses into the future.”

Spanish director Manuel Calvo will present his directorial debut ‘Champions’ starring Saudi actors Fatima El-Banawy and Yasser Sagaf.

The film, ‘Belle: The Dragon and the Freckled Princess,’ written and directed by Academy Award-nominated Mamoru Hosoda, will also have its Arab premiere at the festival.

Another feature documentary by French director Flore Vasseur ‘Bigger Than Us,’ will be a part of the festival. The film focuses on a generation rising to fix the world. The protagonist Melati fights the plastic pollution ravaging her home, Indonesia, for six years.

A selection of short, animated films ‘Kiddomania,’ will also be a part of the segment featuring films by directors Nicolas Deveaux, Benjamin Flouw, Remy Dupont, Paulin Cointot, Gaspard Roche, Paul Emile Boucher, Patrick Jean, Evalds Lacis, Paul Bush, Eric Montchaud and Antoine Robert. The screenings will be accompanied by games.

The closing night of the festival will see the world premiere of ‘Bara El Manhag,’, a film by award-winning Egyptian writer and director Amr Salama.

The story is about a 13-year-old orphan Nour living in the countryside in the early 1980s, who is a compulsive liar with vision problems. To gain the respect of his classmates, he ventures inside a haunted house where he finds a solitary old man who’s hiding from the world.