Saudi Arabia came to the world's largest film market to declare its newly launched film industry "open for business, but largely avoided questions about gender equality.
Saudi Arabia established its first pavilion at this year's Cannes Film Festival, signalling its debut on the international movie stage. The desert kingdom recently lifted a 35-year ban on cinemas, opening the country of 33 million 70 per cent of which is under 30 to both theaters and film productions.
Today, the country's new national film organization, the Saudi Film Council, announced a 35-per cent rebate on films shot in Saudi Arabia and a 50-per cent rebate for studios that use local talent, as a means to entice international productions to the Middle Eastern nation.
Speaking to reporters, Ahmad Al-Mezyed, chief executive of the General Culture Authority, said it was "a call to come shoot in Saudi." "Once supported, we (will) leapfrog a lot of the regions around us to become a dominant player in the industry," said Al-Mezyed.
"We're welcoming the world to Saudi." Asked repeatedly by reporters about women in the new Saudi film business, Al-Mezyed said guidelines based on "what's acceptable in the society" will be announced in the coming weeks on matters like women's dress on film sets.
But Al-Mezyed also noted that Saudi Arabia where women will first be allowed to drive in June is changing. He said the country's initial movie making training program is half women.
"Probably 70 per cent of the questions are about women," sighed Al-Mezyed, responding to a question about the freedom of female filmmakers. "A lot of the ideas that people have are pre-2015, what Saudi used to be, because it's embedded within the media."
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