Viola Davis will be honored at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, where the Oscar winner and four-time nominee will also host a masterclass highlighting her career.

On Monday, the festival – which takes place from December 6 to 14 in Jeddah, on the eastern coast of the Red Sea – announced the main line-up of its fourth edition, which opens with the world premiere of the Egyptian musical drama “The Tale” director Karim Shenawy. from Daye’s family.” The film follows an 11-year-old Nubian albino with a beautiful voice “who faces adversity because of his unique appearance,” as the included synopsis puts it.

“For us, this is a perfect representation of where this region is going and what is happening here,” Shivani Pandya Malhotra, director of the festival, said at a press conference, noting that the inspiring film is a co-production between Egypt and Saudi -Arabia.

The Red Sea fest – which this year emphasizes Saudi and regional cinema – will also pay tribute to Egyptian star Mona Zaki, who helms the Egyptian female empowerment thriller ‘Flight 404’, in which she plays a woman whose contaminated past resurfaces. is about to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

As for the rest of this year’s selection, about half of the films are world premieres or international premieres in 80 countries.

These include the West African island nation of Cape Verde, represented by Denise Fernandes’ magical realist coming-of-age story “Hanami,” and Bangladesh with Maksud Hossain’s “Saba,” about a young woman who is the sole caregiver for her paralyzed mother. in Dhaka.

The 16-title competition also includes ‘Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo’, a first feature film by Egyptian Khaled Mansour about a young man forced to face his fears, and the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight by Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel, ‘To a Land Unknown’. ” Other entries in the competition include Tunisian director Lotfi Achour’s depiction of a young shepherd’s wounded psyche “Red Path”; “Aïcha” by Tunisian director Mehdi M. Barsaoui; and the daring satirical drama ‘Saify’, which features banned religious sermons and is directed by Wael Abu Mansour, whose big local hit ‘Mandoob’ already pushed the kingdom’s cultural boundaries.

The closing film is Michael Gracey’s profile of British pop star Robbie Williams, ‘Better Man’, which will be shown as a gala event. It is possible that Williams will attend, although this has yet to be confirmed.

The other Red Sea gala is Johnny Depp’s film about a seventy-two-hour period in the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, “Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” which is partly funded by the event’s parent organization , the Red Sea gala. Sea Foundation. Depp attended the party last year.

As previously announced, this year’s Red Sea celebration will move from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Jeddah back to the original excavations in the historic Al-Balad district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

View all titles below.

Red Sea Film Festival Competition

“Superboys of Malegaon,” Reema Kagti (India)
“Hanami”, Denise Fernandes (Switzerland, Portugal, Cape Verde)
‘To an unknown land’, Mahdi Fleifel (Greece-Denmark-UK-Netherlands)
“Moon”, Kurdwin Ayub (Austria)
‘Songs of Adam’, Oday Rasheed (Iraq)
“Red Path” Lotfi Achour (Tunisia, France)
“Snow White” Taghrid Aboelhassan (Egypt)
“Bin U Bin” (“Border Elsewhere”), Mohamed Lakhdar Tati (Algeria, France)
“Saify”, Wael Abumansour (Saudi Arabia)
“Aïcha,” Mehdi M Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Italy)
“Looking for a refuge from Mr. Rambo,” Khaled Mansour (Egypt, Saudi Arabia)
“Sima’s Song”, Roya Sadat Netherlands, France
“6 o’clock in the morning”, Mehran Modiri (Iran)
“Killing a Mongolian Horse”, Xiaoxuan Jiang (Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA)
“Saba”, Maksud Hossain (Bangladesh)

Opening night gala

“Daye,” Karim Shenawi” (Egypt, Saudi Arabia)

Awards evening gala

“Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness”, Johnny Depp (UK, Hungary, Italy)

Closing evening gala

“Better Man”, Michael Gracey (Australia, USA)