Saudi Arabia’s Pink Sea Movie Basis has introduced that Mohammed Al-Turki is stepping down as its CEO to deal with private initiatives and his profession as an unbiased movie producer and businessman.
The physique, which was created within the wake of Saudi Arabia’s lifting in late 2017 of its cinema ban, oversees the Jeddah-set Pink Sea Worldwide Movie Competition and can also be charged with serving to to construct a cinema ecosystem within the nation.
Beneath Al Turki’s watch, the inspiration held the primary three editions of the RSIFF and supported 250 initiatives from Saudi, MENA and Africa and Asia.
The muse stated the seek for a successor was underway and that within the interim, former Pink Sea Movie Basis board member Mohammed Asseri was stepping in as performing CEO.
Shivani Pandya Malhotra stays in place as managing director of the inspiration and Al-Turki will proceed to help the management workforce in an advisory position.
“We glance again on the previous three years and the constructing blocks which have been labored on relentlessly by the workforce at Pink Sea Movie Basis and share our gratitude for Mohammed Al-Turki who performed a key position in main the workforce and the Basis to the place it’s in the present day,” stated Pink Sea Movie Basis chairperson Jomana Alrashid.
“We look ahead to watching his profession as one in every of Saudi’s most outstanding movie executives proceed. We additionally look ahead to welcoming new management to the Basis alongside our current workforce which stays spearheaded by our Managing Director Shivani Pandya Malhotra.”
Information of Al Turki’s departure follows a high-profile Cannes for the inspiration, which supported 4 titles world premiering on the Croisette together with Tawfik Alzaidi’s Norah, which made historical past as Saudi Arabia’s first movie chosen for Official Choice, competing in Un Sure Regard the place it clinched a Particular Point out.
Different supported initiatives included Administrators’ Fortnight title To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel, Cannes Critics’ Week closing movie Animale by Emma Benestan and The Brink of Dreams, by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, which additionally premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week and went on to share the Golden Eye Award for Greatest Documentary.
“Working with the Basis on these three editions of the pageant and cementing Saudi Arabia’s place on the worldwide stage of the movie business has been an honor and a privilege,” stated Al Turki.
“We now have achieved a lot, and forward of our fourth version—we’re ready we might solely have dreamed of some years in the past—which is why I really feel now’s the right time to transition. I’m grateful for the ties now we have constructed as a workforce and can proceed to help my Pink Sea Movie Basis household led by the Chairwoman of the Basis Jomana Alrashid and its Managing Director Shivani Pandya Malhotra.”
The fourth version of the Pink Sea Worldwide Movie Competition runs from December 5 to 14.