Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival opened its fifth edition this evening with Rowan Athale’s biopic Giant starring Amir El-Masry as boxing champion Prince Naseem Hamed.
Co-star Pierce Brosnan, who plays Naseem “Naz” Hamed’s Irish trainer Brendan Ingle, did not make the trip to the event’s home of the port city of Jeddah but plenty of other stars were in attendance.
Oscar-winning actors Michael Caine and Juliette Binoche as well as director Rachid Bouchareb and Stanley Tong all took to the stage for honorary awards.
Kirsten Dunst, Queen Latifah, Jessica Alba and Ana de Armas also hit the red carpet while Jury president Sean Baker was joined by jury members featuring Riz Ahmed, Naomie Harris, Nadine Labaki, and Olga Kurylenko. Naseem ‘Naz’ Hamed was also in the audience.
Appearing on stage in a wheelchair Caine was accompanied by his three grandchildren, while his long-time friend Vin Diesel delivered an honorary speech and presented the acting icon with his award.
Caine lapped up the attention declaring to whoops and whistles from the audience, “Thank you for the welcome. My name is Michael Caine.”
“It’s not my real name but it’s a realistic name. It’s the one that made all the money,” he continued to laughs. “I was born a cockney in London, which is very poor working class, and I grew up to be what I am which is, well, I am not multiple rich, but I’ve got enough money for an evening out, even an evening in… I’ve been married for 52 years.”
Acknowledging his grandchildren on stage and name-checking his daughters Natacha and Dominique, Caine said his family was now his priority in life.
“I have loads of photographs but none are of any of the movies I am in, it’s just family, because that’s my life,” he said.
“I’m here to get an award which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve won two Oscars – one with a cockney accent, and one with an American accent – so I’m not really worried about it.”
He expressed surprise at feted being by the Red Sea Film Festival in a place he had never visited before.
“I’ve seen it on the television but I never thought I would win anything here and I’ve won one… I want to thank you for the surprise, because you never get surprises, although you may get a couple of shocks.”
Beyond the celebrity tributes, the focus of the evening was on the evolution of the Red Sea Film Festival as it marked its fifth edition.
Thursday night’s opening ceremony in the Red Sea Film Foundation’s new HQ, in a burgeoning culture quarter, was a far cry from inaugural edition in 2021 in a makeshift theatre, while the body’s legacy of helping emerging directors has also grown.
“Over the past five years, the Red Sea Film foundation has quietly but surely built what many once thought, was impossible,” said Jomana R. Alrashid Chairwoman of the Red Sea Film Foundation.
“It’s more than just a foundation and more than a festival but rather an ecosystem where filmmakers from across the three continents are not only supported, but empowered to lead,” she said.