It’s been a challenging year and things don’t appear to be getting better fast enough. But what has been certain is that our taste for online entertainment has grown with this pandemic. We crave to bring into our home familiar faces from Hollywood but also not so familiar ones from worlds we wish to explore — even if just virtually for the time being.

In that vein, I’ve discovered new works from Russian auteurs, and re-watched favorites from Palestinian filmmakers. I’ve sat streaming through Hitchcock’s tried and true and then dove into new works from South America. It’s been a world of fun.

Now, the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has just announced their Red Sea Lodge edition for 2021. If you haven’t heard about Red Sea IFF it’s because their inaugural 2020 edition got cancelled in the midst of this Covid crisis. But their Red Sea Lodge went ahead as planned, and the awarded projects received $500,000 in production grants each, with a third special mention receiving $25,000.

The Red Sea Lodge Production Grant for a Saudi Project was awarded to ‘Sharshaf’ by Hind Alfahhad, written by Hana Alomair and produced by Talal Ayel.

The Red Sea Lodge Award for an Arab Project was awarded to ‘Bullets & Bread’ by Mohammad Hammad, produced by Kholoud Saad and Mohamed Hefzy.

The Jury also gave a special mention to the Saudi Project ‘Four Acts of Disruption’ directed by Hussam AlHulwah and produced by Mohammad Alhamoud.

This year, along with $100,00 production grants to be awarded once again to two project, the 12 participating projects will also receive expanded mentoring and training program. Today they open applications for the Red Sea Lodge, delivered in partnership with TorinoFilmLab.

Red Sea Lodge Manager Jumana Zahid commented: “We are excited that we have a second occasion to support a new group of participants and hopefully enable more Arab projects to reach audiences. During the first edition, we witnessed the tremendous potential in the Arab and Saudi narrative. Facilitating these emerging filmmakers seems like the very thing to do, especially in such uncertain times”.

Their workshop schedule will be as follows:

Workshop One | Project Development, Part I: Saturday, 3 April to Thursday,10 April

Workshop Two | Project Development, Part II: Saturday, 5 June to Thursday, 10 June

Workshop Three | Visualization, Thursday, 8 July to Tuesday, 13 July

Workshop Four | Production and Post-Production, Sunday, 12 September to Thursday, 16 September

Workshop Five | Pitching & Meeting Industry Professionals, Dates To Be Confirmed

Applications for filmmakers making their first or second feature are open from Sunday, 25 January – Saturday, 27 February, via the Red Sea International Film Festival website.