On Saturday, the Red Sea International Film Festival hosted the fifth annual celebration honoring women in cinema in partnership with Vanity Fair Europe magazine, where the artist Nabila Obaid was honored.
This event comes to celebrate female voices in the film industry, highlight their achievements, in front of and behind the camera, and showcase their efforts in shaping the film industry and inspiring the new generation of Saudi, African and Indian talent.
The ceremony honoring Nabila Obaid witnessed the presence of a large number of artists, most notably Catherine Deneuve, Sofia Vergara, Sharon Stone, Nadine Njeim, Amy Jackson, Yasmine Sabry, Dina El-Sherbiny, Hala Sedqi, Laila Alawi, Lebleba, Sherine Reda and others.
Female talents
In turn, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, Jumana Al-Rashed, said: “We held this celebration to remember together the diversity and female talents in this industry, starting with the personalities we honored today, and ending with a group of the brightest female talents who joined our hospitality in Jeddah, to celebrate. “With the outstanding women’s contributions that have shaped and are shaping our current world.”
Al-Rashed added, in a press statement, “The Red Sea Film Foundation has always supported and championed women who advance this industry to broader horizons, and since our inception, we have been constantly supporting female filmmakers from Maywin to Kawthar Ben Haniyeh.”
For his part, the CEO of the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation, Mohammed Al-Turki, expressed his pride in the presence of 38 female directors in this year’s list of films from the festival and its foundation, saying: “We embrace all the promising and great female talents in cinema, which confirms our commitment to supporting and assisting these talents, and their continued influence.” In the Saudi film industry and outside it.
He pointed out that “the artist, Nabila Obaid, has a long artistic career. She shone on screens and captured hearts all over the world.”
Nabila Obaid is considered a female icon in Egyptian cinema. Through her distinguished performance, she has become one of the figures of Arab cinema in the 20th century. Since her first appearance at the age of 16, and throughout her decades-long career crowned with successes, she has worked with many prominent directors in Egypt.
She also performed many roles during her journey in cinema, which relied on diversity, to include religious and historical roles, and she always championed women’s issues and what they experience socially and politically. Among her most prominent works are “The Investigation Still Continues,” “Rabaa Al-Adawiya,” and “The Dancer and Politician.” .
