Red Sea's Shivani Pandya Malhotra on Saudi Cinema’s Rapid Rise

In just five years, Saudi Arabia ’s Red Sea International Film Festival has gone from an ambitious start-up to an established stop on the global festival circuit — and few people have had a closer view of that transformation than managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra. A veteran executive with more than 25 years in the entertainment business, and previously the longtime managing director of the Dubai International Film Festival, Pandya Malhotra joined the Red Sea Film Foundation in 2019 with a remit to build a world-class festival from scratch and a year-round engine to finance and nurture filmmakers across Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab world, Africa and Asia .

In just five years, Saudi Arabia ’s Red Sea International Film Festival has gone from an ambitious start-up to an est