Saudi Arabia, which, as a cinema hub, has for obvious reasons much catching up to do with the rest of the world, has pulled out the stops and is functioning full-steam from its first-ever Pavilion in the Cannes Film Festival.
The kingdom's culture authorities announced a raft of measures here aimed at developing local talent and attract the big players of international cinema to shooting locations in the kingdom in order to boost its film industry.
India which has the world's most productive film industry figures prominently on the radar of the Saudi Film Council (SFC), which in its inaugural appearance in Cannes, announced a 35 per cent cash rebate for money spent in the kingdom on film production.
The cash rebate on hiring local crew is even more generous 50 per cent.
"We are very excited to mark our first appearance at the Cannes Film Festival and Marche du Film with the launch of initiatives that support our overall goals for talent development and film and content production in the Kingdom," said Ahmad Al-Maziad, CEO of the General Culture Authority (GCA), which oversees SFC.
"They highlight two of our key pillars nurturing and empowering our rich talent pool of aspiring and established filmmakers and introducing the global industry to the world of opportunities the Kingdom has to offer, as we seek to build an industry that draws on our heritage and supports the unique needs of our country, while at the same time plays a vital role within the global film community."