Twelve films supported by the Saudi-based Red Sea Film Foundation are competing for best international feature film at the 99th Academy Awards, eleven of them as official national submissions, the foundation said on Tuesday, according to the Saudi Press Agency as reported by Arab News and Asharq Al-Awsat.
Eleven national picks and one festival entry
The Jeddah-based foundation, which runs the Red Sea International Film Festival and the Red Sea Fund, described the tally as a record for films it has backed. Eleven of the titles were chosen by their own countries as official entries in the international feature category: A Matter of Life and Death, Roqia, Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars, The Stories, Guria, Four Seasons in Java, Sink, Strawberries, Ben’Imana, We Are All Strangers and The Other Side of the Sun.
The twelfth, Angh, reached the race by a different route. It won the Platform Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and under rules introduced by the Academy for the 99th edition, winners of a small group of international festival prizes, the Platform Award among them, may submit directly for consideration in the category.
According to the foundation, the films span Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab world, Africa and Asia.
Arab submissions with Red Sea support
Several of the backed titles carry the hopes of Arab film industries. Saudi Arabia selected A Matter of Life and Death, directed by Anas Ba-Tahaf and written by Sarah Taibah, who also stars opposite Yaqoub Al-Farhan. Set in Jeddah, the film follows Hayat, a woman convinced she will die on her 30th birthday, and a heart surgeon with an unusually slow heartbeat, mixing romance, dark comedy and fantasy. The Saudi Film Commission announced the choice earlier this month after a review by the national selection committee, Gulf News reported. According to The National, the film is due to stream on MBC’s Shahid platform across the Middle East from October 22.
The other Arab entries on the foundation’s list, as detailed in The National’s round-up of this year’s submissions, include Algeria’s Roqia, a horror film by Yanis Koussim rooted in memories of the country’s violence in the 1990s; Egypt’s The Stories, a semi-autobiographical drama by Abu Bakr Shawky; Jordan’s Sink, Zain Duraie’s first feature about a mother facing her teenage son’s mental health crisis; and Morocco’s La Mas Dulce, known internationally as Strawberries, in which Laila Marrakchi follows Moroccan women who travel to Andalusia as seasonal fruit pickers.
A run of festival success
The Oscar tally follows a busy year on the festival circuit for foundation-supported work. Ben’Imana, now Rwanda’s official submission, won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes in May, while the foundation had its largest-ever presence in Toronto with eight supported titles, including Angh.
“The Red Sea Fund backs a broad slate of films each year, and for twelve of them to reach the Oscars race is an extraordinary moment of pride for the Red Sea Film Foundation,” said Faisal Baltyuor, the foundation’s chief executive. He added that being chosen by their countries was “in itself a significant recognition of the filmmakers and their work.”
The road to March
Submission alone does not guarantee a place in the final five. The Academy will publish its 15-film shortlist for best international feature on December 15, followed by the nominations on January 21, 2027. The 99th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles.
Arab cinema arrives with recent momentum: at the last edition, Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, reached the final nominations after a record four Arab films made the shortlist, The National noted.
