Abdullah Al Eyyaf Al-Qahtani is a filmmaker, novelist, and engineer who has won local and regional awards. He was appointed CEO of the Saudi Film Commission in June 2020. He graduated from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and worked as an engineer at Saudi Aramco and held a number of positions there, including head of programs and initiatives at King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithraa), as well as head of media relations, audiovisual production, events, and other departments.
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
Saudi cinema is embarking on a new journey, through which we will enrich the local filmmaking industry and encourage Saudi talents. This will give us an opportunity to build an authentic Saudi cinema that enables us to tell our stories to the whole world. The Commission was established at the beginning of 2020, but our film production has been active for many years before that.
Today, the Kingdom is establishing cinemas in various cities, hosting and participating in local and international festivals, encouraging local talent, and providing financial assistance for filmmakers. These developments will allow the film industry to flourish, encourage creativity, enhance entertainment, and contribute to the economy.
Although the Kingdom’s film industry is still emerging, our talented Saudi filmmakers and other practitioners in the field have represented the Kingdom internationally at film festivals and events and have won many awards that we are so proud of. We aspire to produce even more award-winning local stories and traditional tales and show them to the whole world on the big screen.
How are we going to do that?
We will start by establishing an infrastructure that meets the local film industry’s requirements, provides opportunities for filming foreign films, and provides our local talents with the support they need to produce more work and compete internationally. We also aspire to attract foreign production companies to film at our Kingdom’s unique sites that are extended over 13 regions. In addition, we will work on creating a comprehensive film library using the most up-to-date methods and technologies. This is just the beginning of some of the plans the Commission intends to achieve in the future. We also believe in our own success factors, such as the uniqueness of the terrain and various climate, the virginity of stories, and above all, Saudi society. We also believe in our own success factors, such as the uniqueness of the terrain and various climate, the virginity of stories, and above all, Saudi society.