Nevertheless, as the world continued to shift and turn, Al Turki was fast to identify the change and foresee how it would shape the future. Fueled by his determination to showcase the full potential and magnitude of his region’s cinema and inspired by his life-long believe that movies were in fact a vehicle to travel and experience worlds away from home, Al Turki has dedicated his efforts to establish a platform that demonstrates, engages, and educates. “Being inclusive, being diverse, this is all what festivals should be and should support and should empower. And it is wonderful to see this happening with Red Sea, and I really hope the next editions will keep the momentum.” To truly realize this awe-inspiring goal, the Red Sea Film Festival has been notorious for bringing supernova award-winning filmmakers from opposite sides of the world to the Middle East to discuss and share ideologies. “It is really important to have people like Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Oscar winners Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Adrian Brody and screen legends such as Chris Hemsworth and so on. But other than that, more importantly as well for me is the fact that we had 3 editions and each year our President of jury was someone that I grew up obsessing over his films. Our first edition, we had Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, who has done Oscar films such as Cinema Paradiso and Melena. And then the second year we had Hollywood iconic director Oliver Stone, who has done great films like JFK. And then having Baz Luhrmann last year, who is another favorite of mine. It is great not only for Saudi, but for the region overall.”