How Ithra is helping shape the future of Saudi cinema beyond blockbusters

Saudi Arabia’s film industry is evolving at remarkable speed, with conversations often focused on box office milestones and studio-backed blockbusters.

Multiplex expansions and record-breaking releases have become familiar symbols of progress. But beyond the premieres and red carpets, institutions such as the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture (known as Ithra) are quietly shaping a deeper and more lasting transformation.

Through the Ithra Film Fund, the centre has committed itself to supporting Saudi filmmakers working across development, production and post-production, with a focus on independent and arthouse cinema. The fund operates on a non-recoupable, grant-based model, backing short and feature-length projects that reflect Saudi culture in personal and distinctive ways.

For Feras Almusharria, film programme developer at Ithra, this approach is rooted in a long-term view of how national cinema is formed. He argues that while commercial films are an important part of the ecosystem, the deeper identity of Saudi cinema will come from elsewhere.

“We support arthouse cinema, independent cinema,” he says. “One of the reasons we support these films is that we believe part of shaping this industry will come from the commercial films, but the majority of the films that will create the texture and the identity of the Saudi cinema will come from the independent and arthouse filmmakers.”

Feras Almusharria is the film programme developer at Ithra. Photo: Ithra

This philosophy is reflected in Ithra’s consistent presence at festivals such as the Red Sea International Film Festival. Ithra participates both in the screening programme and the production market, where it presents the Ithra Film Award, offering 50,000 Saudi riyals in development funding to a Saudi project.

In the screening section, two Ithra-supported films were selected this year. The first was Hijra, a feature-length film written and directed by Shahad Ameen, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The other was Irtizaz, a short film by Saudi filmmaker Sara Balghonaim.

When Hijra screened at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, its Saudi premiere carried a rare intimacy. “I am from Jeddah, so this is my territory,” Ameen told The National. The film, which won the Netpac Award for Best Asian Film in Venice and was selected as Saudi Arabia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature, is set for a mid-January release in the UAE.

Rooted in faith, family and migration, Hijra follows a grandmother travelling to Makkah with her two granddaughters before the journey is disrupted by a disappearance. For Ithra, the film exemplifies the kind of culturally grounded, director-driven work the fund seeks to support, pairing personal storytelling with themes that resonate across generations and borde