- 12 titles revealed featuring Academy Awards Contenders, Action Stars, andIconic Women from Shu Qi to Charlie XCX
The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea IFF) has gathered together the best of 2025’s global festival circuit together for its Festival Favourites strand, which marks the MENA premieres of nine stand-out titles from the past year in film, and the Saudi premieres of two significant Egyptian films. Selections have been curated from festivals across the globe including Angouleme, Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Toronto and Venice International Film Festivals.
This year, the selection includes the Academy Award-nominated Japanese box office sensation KOKUHO, the award-winning directorial debut of Asian cinema icon Shu Qi (GIRL), a return to the killing fields of Rwanda starring France’s Sonia Rolland (KWIBUKE, REMEMBER), Charlie XCX’s weekend in Warsaw (ERUPCJA) and pulp actioners THE FURIOUS, from legendary Hong Kong producer Bill Kong, alongside Ben Wheatley and Bob Odekirk’s night of west-meets-east insanity NORMAL.
Switzerland’s Academy Award entry, LATE SHIFT, follows a day in the life of a nurse portrayed with thrilling precision by Leonie Benitsch; SAIPAN explores the tensions surrounding Ireland’s 2002 World Cup bid — in which a match against Saudi Arabia played a pivotal role — while PRIMAVERA transports Jeddah audiences to 18th-century Venice for a critically acclaimed rendezvous with Antonio Vivaldi. Meanwhile, THE SECRET AGENT, the Cannes-winning Brazilian period drama directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and honored with Best Director and Best Actor, unfolds as a gripping political story set against the backdrop of Brazil’s 1977 military dictatorship.
From the Arab world, two Egyptian films that have made their mark on the festival circuit have been selected – THE SETTLEMENT by Mohamed Rashad and MY FATHER’S SCENT by Mohamed Siam both immerse viewers in complex family relationships with particular focus on fatherhood, spotlighting strong and tender characters with stand-out on screen performances.
Faisal Baltyuor, CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation, commented: “The ‘Festival Favourites’ program represents the culmination of an exceptional cinematic year, bringing together twelve films that have shone at major international festivals. Each title has been carefully curated by our team to offer audiences in the heart of historic Jeddah a remarkable window into world cinema — reaffirming our belief in the Festival’s role as a bridge between East and West, and in presenting cinematic experiences that enrich the cultural landscape and strengthen Saudi Arabia’s position as a leading destination for film.”
Red Sea International Film Festival – Festival Favourites
ERUPCJA
Country: USA, Poland
Pete Ohs
Charlie XCX takes the lead in Eurpcja, Pete Ohs’ observational drama featuring an ensemble cast of characters who criss-cross, connect and re-connect at pivotal junctures. Bethany (Charli XCX) is on a romantic getaway with Rob (Will Madden), who plans to propose, but she hasn’t been entirely honest about her past, or her friendship with Nel (Lena Gora) a florist. Every time they meet there’s a seismic event, an Erupcja (eruption) which leads them down different paths.
GIRL
Country: Taiwan R.O.C.
Shu Qi
Girl marks the directorial debut of superstar Shu Qi, icon of Asian cinema and muse of Hou Hsiao-hsien. Her self-penned, deeply personal coming-of-age drama is set in a cramped home ruled by abuse and won the actress the coveted Best Director prize at the Busan International Film Festival.
KOKUHO
Country: Japan
Lee Sang-il
Taking well over $100m in Japan and set to become the highest-grossing live-action film ever released there, Kokuho is Lee Sang-il’s long-gestating passion project, born from a 15-year fascination with kabuki. The high-stakes drama begins in 1964 Nagasaki and unfolds over five decades, tracing the bond between Kikuo — taken in by a kabuki master after his father’s death — and the master’s son, Shunsuke. Starring Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama, Kokuho is visually sumptuous and emotionally resonant — a powerful meditation on legacy, identity and the high cost of artistic greatness.
KWIBUKA, REMEMBER
Country: Belgium, Rwanda
Jonas D’Adesky
In Kwibuka, Remember, Jonas D’Adesky tells the story of Lia (Sonia Rollant), a Belgian-Rwandan basketball player facing the twilight of her career. Twenty years after fleeing the genocide, she is asked to join the Rwandan national basketball team. This journey stirs buried memories of a painful past: exile, family silences and the pain of a fractured identity.
LATE SHIFT
Country: Switzerland, Germany
Petra Volpe
Late Shift, Petra Volpe’s salute to caregivers, is executed with strength and admiration. Led by a nuanced and meticulous performance from Leonie Benesch, the film is an eloquent plea for compassion, as well as being a gripping story about a day in the life of a hospital worker. Switzerland’s Academy Award submission, Late Shift delivers high drama and a sharp question: who will care for the carers?
MY FATHER’S SCENT
Country: Egypt
Mohamed Siam
A tense, poetic odyssey unfolds over one night as a father and son confront each other, aiming to settle old scores. Confined to a single apartment, their raw, emotional confrontation quickly escalates, peeling back layers of a fraught relationship. This gripping family drama forces a poignant reflection: if granted one final night with a lost loved one, would you seek vengeance or reconciliation? With powerful performances, the film is a sensitive, intimate and profound exploration of the complex, enduring bond between father and son.
NORMAL
Country: USA, Canada
Ben Wheatley
Normal‘s night of reckoning and west-meets-east thrills and blood-spills is dark, absurdly funny and drenched in its own B-movie, A-experience sensibility. Back in trenchant Free-Fire form, Ben Wheatley directs Bob Odenkirk (‘Better Call Saul’, the Nobody movies) from a script by Odenkirk and John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. Normal is the name of this burg of 1,890 cheerful, chipper Midwesterners, where the laid-back Ulysses (Odenkirk) takes a temp job as acting sheriff, but the film is anything but.
PRIMAVERA
Country: Italy, France
Damien Michieletto
Damien Michieletto’s redolent drama Primavera transports us to the Ospedale della Pieta in the early 1700s, an orphanage where musically-gifted girls perform new works as part of a lucrative orchestra. When Antonio Vivaldi is hired, he identifies Cecilia’s (Tecia Insolia) clear talent and makes her first violin, but her fate has been long-since foretold.
SAIPAN
Country: Ireland, United Kingdom
Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn
The tensions surrounding Ireland’s 2002 World Cup bid are universal to any underdog country which has dared to hope for footballing glory; add Roy Keane’s unique personality to the mix, and you have the exciting, funny, tense drama Saipan, superbly acted by the double act of Steve Coogan as Ireland’s shambling manager Mick McCarthy and newcomer Eanna Hardwicke as the Manchester United force of nature that was/is Keane.
THE FURIOUS
Country: Hong Kong
Tanigaki Kenji
Gritty and powerful, The Furious is a masterpiece in its genre and a must-watch for martial arts fans. The Bill Kong-produced epic helmed by action choreographer-turned-director Tanigaki Kenji, it unites a cast of pan-Asian stars — including Xie Miao (The New Legend Of Shaolin), Joe Taslim (The Raid: Redemption), Jeeja Yanin and Yayan Ruhian — with fight sequences choreographed for raw authenticity.
THE SETTLEMENT
Country: Egypt
Mohamed Rashad
When 23-year-old Hossam’s father dies in a factory accident, management of the factory offer a deal: a job for Hossam and his younger brother, 12-year-old Maro, in exchange for burying the truth. With a criminal record and a disabled mother to support, Hossam has little choice but to accept the job, even as his brother insists on working beside him. Hossam is pulled in multiple directions — between the truth of his father’s death, a first love affair with a disappearing coworker and his community’s dark reputation. This thriller has an intriguing atmosphere, and to emphasize the characters’ oppression, director Mohamed Rashad uses sound — especially the overwhelming noise of the factory machines — to immerse the audience in a corrupt world.
THE SECRET AGENT
Country: Germany, France, Brazil and Netherlands
Kleber Mendonça Filho Fasten your seatbelts: Brazil is in the throes of a military dictatorship and left-leaning academic Marcelo (Wagner Moura) is on the run and headed to Recife with his young son. Once there, he has to get his papers — and best the rogue’s gallery of characters and scenarios strewn in his path by director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Set in 1977, The Secret Agent is full of surprises, cycling between B movie set pieces, some pointed satire and duelling timelines and perspectives. It is a sharp political drama that delivers an entertaining and suspenseful ride, which won best actor and best director at Cannes this year for Moura and Filho respectively. It is also Brazil’s submission to the US Academy Awards.
