Fund Cycles
The Red Sea Fund is unleashing the biggest funding boost for the industry this year. Backing 100+ directors to bring their vision on the big screen, with grants totaling 14 million US dollars – supporting film projects from development to post-production.
Documentary, fiction, animation – episodic, shorts, and features – the Fund is looking out for filmmakers and the new exciting wave of films from the region, from development to post-production.
Registration is Now Open
Headline for the Calendar
Frequently asked questions
Complete the online application form available on the website
The applications will be available as follows:
- February 6th to February 21st (Post-production)
- April 6th to April 30th (Development)
- June 6th to July 6th (Production)
- August 6th to August 21st (Post-production)
● For Saudi directors, the director must be of Saudi nationality or origin.
● For Arab directors, the director must be of Arab nationality or origin.
● For African directors, the director must strictly be of African nationality.
Yes.
A logline is a brief summary of a film that states the central conflict of the story, providing both a synopsis of the plot and an emotional "hook" to stimulate interest. It is usually one sentence, approximately 30 words.
A synopsis is a brief description of the key elements of the story without dialogue. The Red Sea Fund requires a synopsis of a maximum of 350 words with spaces.
The director’s vision provides information about the creative approach of the director and should offer a strong sense of how the film will look.
Director’s motivation is a one-minute video of the director explaining his/her vision of the film itself.
A biography is presented as written text describing the educational background and work experience of the director/producer.
● Financial Plan: The document in which you specify how much money you need. It should include the financiers who have already committed; those who have been approached whose response is still pending; and those who have been identified but are yet to be formally approached. You are basically showing where the money comes from and that your sources of income are reliable.
● Budget: The sheet that helps you map out your key expenses and plan for the weeks and months to come. A budget includes all costs relating to the development, production and post-production of a film, for instance, the costs of acquiring the script; payments to talent; and production costs.
● Both documents should be submitted.
Chain of title is essentially all those documents needed to show that the filmmaker owns his/her film and has secured all the rights necessary to distribute it.
A rough cut is the first cut that can be presented to the film editor. In other words, it's like a filmmaker's version of the first working draft of a written document. The document isn't yet ready to be presented, but it is an in-progress version of a product that needs refining. If the language of the film is neither Arabic nor English, English subtitles are required.
The grants are awarded on a case-by-case basis decided by our selection committee.
- For development projects: Up to USD 25,000
- Production projects: Up to USD 500,000
- Post-production projects: Up to USD 100,000
The Red Sea Fund will decide, on a case-by-case basis and given the amount granted, whether or not it is recoupable. The recoupment plan is eligible only after the film has generated revenue after deducting project budget for a period of maximum 5 years and/or capped to maximum support amount. Recoupment will be a percentage of the total revenue compared to the support amount and the total project amount.
The same project can be submitted to all 3 fund stages. However, a selected project in the development fund can only be submitted to either production or post-production.