By Rafa Sales Ross
From cinema ban to film festival: Saudi Arabia rolls out the red carpet • FRANCE 24 English
Zaid Shaker is excited about what lies ahead. The new Acting Executive Director of Film AlUla, who takes over from Charlene Deleon-Jones as interim CEO, comes to the role with the desire to build on AlUla’s ambition to become a major global hub for film production and creative industries in North West Arabia.
“We are on the verge of closing some major deals on projects and are in discussions with studios and production companies about their upcoming plans which we will announce in due course,” Shaker told Variety when asked what can be expected from his tenure in the role.
“We also continue to support film through our initiatives, including a strategic partnership with the Red Sea Film Fund to jointly provide grants, provide financial production support to filmmakers from the MENA region, and the opportunity to complete part of the filming in AlUla.”
