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The Fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) came to a crescendo with the naming of the winners of this year’s prestigious Yusr Awards.

The features jury, Tûba Büyüküstün, Minnie Driver, Daniel Dae Kim, and Abu Bakr Shawky, led by Jury President Spike Lee deliberated to finally select winners across 16 feature films in competition, while the shorts jury Hamzah Jamjoom, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, and Ke-Xi Wu judged across the short film offering of Rsiff 2024.

Red Path (Tunisia) directed by Lotfi Achour was awarded the prestigious Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film. An extraordinary journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone, Red Path is the third feature film by director Lotfi Achour, and it had its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland. With this film, we observe the development of Tunisian cinema, its craftsmanship, and its distinctive presence in this edition of the festival.

Tunisia’s “Red Path,” directed by Lotfi Achour, was awarded the Golden Yusr for best feature film Thursday at the Red Sea Film Festival awards ceremony, where honorary awards were bestowed on Viola Davis and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Sarah Jessica Parker, Dev Patel, John Boyega and Nick Jonas were among the star guests.

Johnny Depp’s “Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness” screened as the festival’s final gala screening, with Depp attending with star Riccardo Scamarcio.

“Red Path,” described as “a journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone,” is the third feature film by Achour. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. The Golden Yusr comes with a $100,000 cash prize.

Achour also took home Red Sea’s Yusr prize for best director, which comes with a $10,000 prize.

The awards were bestowed by a features jury led by its president Spike Lee,...

Tunisian director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path won the Yusr Award for best competition film and the best director honor at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during its Thursday evening awards ceremony that also saw Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Viola Davis being honored.

The Silver Yusr Feature Film Award went to Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, a drama about young Palestinians caught in an eternal state of exile. Little Jaffna, starring and directed by Lawrence Valin, was honored with the AlUla Audience Award International Film, with Hobal from director Abdulaziz Alshlahei getting the Saudi film audience award.

“Ashraf, a shepherd boy working with his teenage cousin in impoverished northern Tunisia faces the unimaginable when Islamic State terrorists set on them and behead his cousin Nizar in front of him,” says a synopsis for Red Path. “Ashraf has no...

Tunisia director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path has won best film and director at the fourth edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival.

The drama was among 15 titles from the Middle East, Africa, and, for the first time, Asia competing for the festival’s Yusrs awards.

Red Path, which world premiered at Locarno, revolves around a shepherd boy who is traumatized when his teenager cousin is beheaded by Islamic State terrorists in front of him. He brings the head back to his family, but recovering the teenage boy’s body becomes a challenge with the terrorists remaining a threat in the backdrop.

This year’s jury for the main feature film competition was presided over by Spike Lee, with support from Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, UK actor Minnie Driver, Turkish actress Tûba Büyüküstün and U.S. actor and producer Daniel Dae Kim

Thursday evening’s ceremony kicked...

“Home” is the theme of the 4th edition of the Red Sea Film Festival as it returns to its original location, but in a sleek custom-built venue, in the recently renovated Al-Balad district in Jeddah, a Unesco World Heritage site.

Kaleem Aftab, the fest’s head of international programming, says that home is a fitting theme for this year’s edition since the festival increasingly serves as a key platform for Africa, Arab and Asian cinema, and its impact is now all-year-round through the work of the Red Sea Film Foundation.

“We’re focusing on what we can achieve as a foundation rather than just as a festival,” he explains, adding that 11 of the 122 films screening at this year’s edition have been developed within the Red Sea eco-system, including the opening film, “The Tale of Daye’s Family,” which is a Saudi Egyptian co-production.

“We are the best place...

The celebrated actor and filmmaker Kevin Costner has been tapped by the Scad Savannah Film Festival to receive its Legend of Cinema Award, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively report.

Costner will be presented with the honor following a Nov. 1 afternoon screening of Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1, the first installment of an epic Western film series that he directed and stars in, and a Q&a about the film, moderated by yours truly, in which he will field questions alongside the film’s cinematographer J. Michael Muro (Cas), costume designer Lisa Lovaas, film editor Miklos Wright (Ace) and re-recording mixer Joe DeAngelis.

Past recipients of the Scad Savannah Film Festival’s Legend of CInema Award include Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman.

Costner joins a formidable roster of Hollywood heavyweights who are headed south for this year’s edition of the nation’s largest university-sponsored film festival, which will run Oct.

Domestic bliss and a fruitful career collide with latent trauma and erotic expression in the teaser trailer for Argentine helmer Javier Van de Couter’s latest project, “Thesis on a Domestication” (“Tesis sobre una domesticación”), shared exclusively with Variety.

Backed by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s ambitious Mexican production company La Corriente del Golfo (“State of Silence”), the film will compete for the Q Hugo Award, bowing globally as it screens within the LGBTQ+ focused Outlook program at the Chicago International Film Festival, running Oct.16-27, before heading on to Morelia.

Buenos Aires-based Aurora Cine founder Laura Huberman (“El perro que no calla”), Ramiro Pavón at Argentina’s Oh My Gomez! Films (“El perfecto David”), Van de Couter and La Corriente del Golfo’s Lorena Cándano de la Peza, Mónica Pérez and Kyzza Terrazas produce the project alongside Bernal and Luna, their companies’ ever-championing bold narratives that add...

Paola Malanga is the artistic director of the Rome Film Festival which kicks off tomorrow (October 16) with the world premiere of Andrea Segre’s political drama The Great Ambition.

It is Malanga’s third edition at the helm of the festival, having joined in 2022 from Rai Cinema where she was deputy director of its product division spanning production and acquisition. She has also been a journalist, film critic and author throughout her career.

Among the world premieres in Rome’s main Progressive Cinema competition are dark comedy The Trainer by American History X director Tony Kaye and Eran Ricklis’ Reading Lolita In Tehran.

For its 27th year, the Scad Savannah Film Festival will take place October 27-November 2 — with Scad, of course, standing for Savannah College of Art and Design. The festival opens with Steve McQueen’s “Blitz” and closes with Pablo Larraín’s “Maria.” Honorees of the Scad Savannah Film Festival were previously announced.

This year’s edition will screen 162 films, including 123 narrative feature films, 31 documentary feature films, and 69 shorts, with 10 world premieres, and six U.S. premieres in Georgia. The lineup is sectioned into galas, signature screenings, special presentation, professional and student competition films, Docs to Watch, Pixels and Pencils, and the Behind the Lens and Below the Line panel series.

Gala screenings include: “Blitz,” “Better Man,” “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Fire Inside,” “Juror #2,” “The Last Showgirl,” “Maria,” “Nickel Boys,” “Nightbitch,” “The Piano Lesson,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5,” “Sweethearts,” and “Unstoppable”

Special presentations include: “All We Imagine as Light,” “The End,...

They might as well hold the Oscars in Savannah later this month, rather than in Hollywood early next year, because virtually every serious contender of this awards season will soon be headed south for the Scad Savannah Film Festival, which will take place Oct. 26-Nov. 2.

Just days after the fest announced special honors for Annette Bening (lifetime achievement), Jerry Bruckheimer (Young Woman and the Sea), Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Karla Sofia Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Jharrel Jerome (Unstoppable), Richard Linklater (Hit Man), Mikey Madison (Anora), Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus), Steve McQueen (Blitz), Lupita Nyong’o (The Wild Robot) and Daisy Ridley (Young Woman and the Sea and Magpie), The Hollywood Reporter has learned that 10 more big names will be headed south to attend screenings and pick up statuettes.

They include three best actress contenders: Demi Moore will receive the Icon Award at a screening of The Substance...

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including events for Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Tribeca and Pride.

Despicable Me 4 premiere

Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Joey King, Chloe Fineman and Miranda Cosgrove walked the red carpet at the New York premiere of the latest Despicable Me movie on Sunday.

Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig and Steve Carell Joey King Inside Out 2 premiere

Stars of the voice cast, including Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale and Lewis Black, celebrated the Pixar sequel in Los Angeles on Monday.

Liza Lapira, June Squibb, Yvette Nicole Brown, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Amy Poehler, Ayo Edebiri, Tony Hale and Lewis Black Amy Poehler A Family Affair premiere

Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Joey King debuted their new Netflix rom-com in Los Angeles on Thursday,...