Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has added a collection of late additions to the In Conversation series at this year’s event.
Jessica Alba, Ana de Armas, Nina Dobrev, Kirsten Dunst, Dakota Johnson, Queen Latifah, and Kriti Sanon (Tere Ishk Mein) will all travel to the festival to take part in the In-Conversation series.
This year’s Red Sea Film Festival will run from December 4 to 13. Rowan Athale’s biopic Giant, starring Amir El Masry as British-Yemeni boxing champion Prince Naseem ‘Naz’ Hamed, will open the fifth edition of the event.
International titles in the mix include Alice Winocour’s Paris-set drama Couture, starring Angelina Jolie, and Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard of the Kremlin.
Rupert Wyatt’s Desert Warrior, which was backed by and shot in Saudi Arabia but features an international cast, also plays in the International Spectacular sidebar.
Giant follows the rise of Hamed and his relationship with Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, charting his rags-to-riches underdog tale from his humble beginnings in Sheffield to becoming champion of the world.
It also tackles how he faced down racism and islamophobia that swept Britain in the 1980s and ’90s to become a global sporting icon. The film explores the unlikely and tender relationship between Naz and Ingle, and the instrumental role that Ingle played in Naz’s road to success.
Juliette Binoche, French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory), Michael Caine, Hong Kong filmmaker Stanley Tong (A Legend), and Sigourney Weaver will be handed honorary awards at the festival.
