Behind The Lens: Meet and Learn from Film Experts

Interested in making films? Join us during the Shorts Weekend in collaboration with the Red Sea Film Foundation, for a deep-dive into the film industry led by expert mentors on filmmaking, producing, scriptwriting, and festival submissions. You'll discover the fundamentals of short filmmaking across the entire life-cycle of a film: from writing, to directing, to producing, to submitting to festivals.

The two-hour workshop will be divided into four 30-minute roundtable sessions where participants will be able to sit with each of our four mentors and get key advice on how to navigate the film industry successfully.

 The “Behind The Lens: Meet and Learn from Film Experts” will be followed by the screening of Saudi short films – click here to reserve your seat.

THE MENTORS:

Filmmaking with Ali Kalthami (30min)

Saudi film director and writer Ali Kalthami began his career making digital series including AlKhallat, which ran for a decade and was later adapted by Netflix. In 2016 he moved into cinema with his short film Wasati; his feature-length thriller Mandoob was one of two produced by Telfaz11, a Riyadh-based content creator he helped establish, to screen at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Production with Abdulrahman Khawj (30min)

Abdulrahman serves as CEO of Kawkab Pictures, a Saudi-based entertainment company specializing in the financing and distribution of animation and live-action films and limited series.

Scriptwriting with Darin J Sallam (30min)

Darin J. Sallam, a Jordanian writer and director, holds an MFA in Cinematic Arts from the Red Sea Institute for Cinematic Arts (RSICA), affiliated with the University of Southern California (USC). She has garnered acclaim for her five award-winning short films, including STILL ALIVE (2010), THE DARK OUTSIDE (2012), and THE PARROT (2016), which have screened at renowned film festivals worldwide. Recognized as a Berlinale Talent in 2021, Sallam has received prestigious awards such as the 2015 Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the 2017 Artist in Residency Fellowship at La Cité Internationale des Arts, and the 2018 Global Media Makers Fellowship by Film Independent. Additionally, she co-founded and managed TaleBox, a Jordanian production and training company. Her debut feature film, FARHA, premiered at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival in 2021.
 

Festivals & Promotion with Kaleem Aftab (30 min)
 
Kaleem Aftab, Director of International Programming at the Red Sea Film Foundation is a distinguished film critic with more than 25 years of experience writing about movies for newspapers, lifestyle and cinema publications, and trade magazines, as well as penning the only authorized biography of Spike Lee. Aftab has previously managed film programming for the BFI, the East End Film Festival, and Tromso International Film Festival. He has also produced several films, such as “This is What It Is” (2007), “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” (2010), and “Love” (2008).