Sixteen projects from the Arab world, Asia and Africa have been selected for the Feature Competition.
The Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) has announced the 16 films selected for its Red Sea: Competition section, which will take place during the festival’s fifth edition from December 4 to 13, 2025. These films will vie for the coveted Yusr Awards, celebrating outstanding cinematic achievements across narrative, animation and documentary formats.
Dedicated to championing visionary storytelling from Asia and Africa, including the Arab world, the competition highlights both emerging and established filmmakers who bring bold, original voices to the screen. The selection reflects the festival’s commitment to rewarding cinematic excellence and cross-cultural creativity.
Among the lineup are seven films supported by the Red Sea Film Foundation, including Hijra, Saudi Arabia’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, directed by Shahad Ameen; A Sad and Beautiful World, a moving drama by Cyril Aris; Zain Duraie’s debut feature Sink, which follows a mother navigating her son’s mental health struggles; and Roqia, a supernatural tale set in Algeria’s Black Decade from Yanis Koussim. Other Foundation-backed titles include Allah is not Obliged, an animated feature about an African child soldier that premiered at Annecy, and Truck Mama, a Kenyan documentary.
The selection also features the world premiere of Barni, Somali director Mohammed Sheikh’s debut about a missing child, as well as regional premieres of award-winning international films such as Two Seasons, Two Strangers, Sho Miyake’s Locarno Golden Leopard winner, and Lost Land, the first-ever Rohingya-language feature by Akio Fujimoto. Palestinian-American filmmaker Cherien Dabis presents All That’s Left of You, a mother’s perspective on a teenager swept into a West Bank protest, while The Stories by Abu Bakr Shawky and Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream by Mohamed Al-Daradji represent Iraqi cinema’s strong presence.
Antoine Khalife, Director of Arab Programmes and Film Classics, said: “We are expanding the perception of what Arab cinema can be with our 2025 Competition programme– selecting titles that are deeply rooted in their regions yet universal in feeling. We’re thrilled to be bringing the very best of filmmaking from the region, including the Saudi film Hijra, as part of a lineup that is reshaping our collective narrative by vital telling stories of resilience, migration, identity, and transformation with urgency and clarity. The filmmakers draw on their personal history and the history of their parents to tell us stories that span several years, stories about struggles, love of the land, love of music, their aspirations and those of their parents, and we are thus immersed in the history of the Arab world with all the transformations that have occurred over several decades.”
Fionnuala Halligan, Director Of International Programmes, added: ‘Focused as we are on films from Asia and Africa for our Competition selection, we see this year a theme of being lost and found – evidently in films like BARNI, from Somalia, which focuses on a missing girl, to the plight of the Rohingya in Lost Land. We are delighted to welcome our first ever Korean film in Competition, The World of Love, alongside titles from China, Tajikistan and Kenya, complementing our wider programme of films from across the globe and continuing our commitment to creating cultural exchange through the medium of film. Our selection celebrates filmmakers who push the boundaries and expand the language of cinema – showing how creativity thrives when cultures meet.”
