Maha Haj, Mamadou Dia Options Set For Pink Sea Souk Challenge Market
Upcoming movies from Palestinian director Maha Haj, Lebanese director Wissam Charaf, Sudanese breakout Mohamed Kordofani and Chinese language author and director Jing Zou are amongst 40 titles chosen for the upcoming version of the Pink Sea Movie Competition’s Souk Challenge Market.
The platform going down throughout the framework of the pageant in December is designed to bolster worldwide co-productions and grant entry to new tasks and expertise from throughout the Arab World, Asia and Africa.
It should showcase 24 Initiatives in Improvement, eight Works-In-Progress and eight Episodic Sequence. Twelve of the 24 tasks in growth or manufacturing have been developed by the Pink Sea Labs over the yr as a part of the Characteristic Movie Program. This program is in partnership with Torino Movie Lab and sponsored by Movie Alula.
The remaining 12 tasks will obtain pitch mentoring from Producer Anna Katchko, Script Marketing consultant David Pope and Gross sales Agent Gabor Greiner.
Haj, whose final movie Mediterranean Fever was Palestine’s 2023 Oscar entry and received finest screenplay in Cannes Un Sure Regard, will current drama Playhouse; whereas Kordofani, who broke out internationally in 2023 with Goodbye Julia as the primary Sudanese movie to play in Cannes, will unveil About Love And September Legal guidelines.
Senegal’s Mamadou Dia, who beforehand made waves with Nafi’s Father and Demba, attends with Coumba, following a detective returning to her hometown to analyze a homicide tied to a hoofed spirit.
Charaf, who was on the Pink Sea Competition with Soiled, Troublesome, Harmful in 2022, will current coming-of-age 1986 drama Vacation, a few boy whose household is pressured to flee its house in West Beirut to stick with relations in Southen Lebanon.
Obasi, whose movie Mami Wata was Nigeria’s 2024 Oscar entry, will give a sneak peak of his new movie La Pyramide, which is one among eight Works in Progress titles and was on the mission market final yr whereas nonetheless in growth.
Following 2024’s opening of submissions to filmmakers throughout Asia for the primary time, this yr the proportion of chosen tasks from the area has grown to 35%.
They embrace Chinese language author and director Jing Zou’s function movie mission A Lady Unknown which received the highest prize on the Subsequent Step initiative of Cannes Critics’ Week in 2024, and has been chosen the work in progress part.
In additional stats, the market revealed 18 filmmakers have had their debut options chosen, and over 42% of the tasks are created by feminine filmmakers.
Alumni returning to the Souk with new tasks this yr are Arvin Belarmino, Charaf and Shokir Kholikov, who’ve beforehand screened titles as a part of the Pink Sea Worldwide Movie Competition,
The platform obtained 1,900 purposes had been obtained throughout the Pink Sea Souk and Labs for his or her 2025 editions.
“Our Souk Challenge Market is a crucial a part of the Pink Sea Movie Basis’s ecosystem – appearing as a vibrant hub for brand new voices to collaborate on progressive tasks and concepts. Celebrating a five-year arc of this programme additionally means we’re welcoming again earlier alumni with new work, which is a mark of the rising legacy of the Souk,” Holly Daniel, Pink Sea Souk Director.
This yr’s collection of titles is numerous, artistic and highly effective and supply big alternatives for growth, and we’re trying ahead to introducing them to new potential trade companions on the fifth version of the Competition in December.”
All chosen tasks shall be thought of for the Pink Sea Souk Awards offered by the Pink Sea Fund, alongside a lot of award companions to be introduced quickly.
The 2025 Pink Sea Souk Choice
Initiatives-in-Improvement and Manufacturing:
A NOBLE DEATH
by Dalia Baeshen
Debut, Fiction
Saudi Arabia
A TIME TO WANDER
by Rim Nakhli
Debut, Fiction
Tunisia
ABOUT LOVE AND SEPTEMBER LAWS
by Mohamed Kordofani
Fiction
Sudan, France, Germany, Sweden
COLD ASHES CAN CAUSE FOREST FIRES
by Ashmita Guha Neogi
Debut, Fiction
France, India
COUMBA
by Mamadou Dia
Fiction
Senegal, France
DHEL
by Dania Altayeb
Debut, Fiction
Saudi Arabia
DIAPHANOUS
by Dornaz Hajiha
Fiction
Iran, Hong Kong, France, Norway, Mexico
FICTION
by Anocha Suwichakornpong
Inventive Documentary
Thailand
GREEN CORPSE
by Khaled Zidan
Debut, Fiction
Saudi Arabia
HOLIDAY
by Wissam Charaf
Fiction
France, Lebanon, Italy
INFIDELS
by Eli Jean Tahchi
Debut, Fiction
Lebanon, Canada
LEG
by Shokir Kholikov
Fiction
Kazakhstan, Italy
NKANAI
by Bruno Tanya
Debut, Fiction
Kenya
PHILAX by Ruken Tekes
Debut, Fiction
Turkey, Italy, Greece.
PLAYHOUSE
by Maha Haj
Fiction
Palestine, Germany, France, Cyprus
POSITIVE
by Hanaa Saleh Alfassi
Debut, Fiction
Saudi Arabia
PRICE OF EVIL
by Ibrahim Mursal
Debut, Fiction
Sudan, Norway
SALMA AND THE MOON AND THE STARS
by Maram Taibah
Debut, Fiction
Saudi Arabia
SPACEMAN IN KONGO
by Maisha Maene
Debut, Inventive Documentary
Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Kingdom, Germany
STREET EDUCATION
by Yaser B.
Fiction
Saudi Arabia
THE DAUGHTER
by Tian Guan
Debut, Fiction
China, Taiwan, France
TO CATCH A FALLING SKY
by Cheta Chukwu
Fiction
Nigeria, United Kingdom
UNHOLY
by Mohammad Reza Fahriyansyah
Fiction
Indonesia
VEIL WHISPERER
by Iris Lanhua Ma
Fiction
China
Works-in-Progress
A GIRL UNKNOWN
by Jing Zou
Debut, Fiction
China, France
A MOON FOR EVERY RIVER
by You Gu
Debut, Fiction
China, France
BENIMANA
by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Debut, Fiction
Rwanda, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Norway
LA PYRAMIDE
by Cj ‘Fiery’ Obasi
Fiction
Nigeria, United Kingdom, United States of America, Senegal, Brazil
RIA
by Arvin Belarmino
Debut, Fiction
Philippines, Norway, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan
THE LAST DAYS OF RM
by Amin Sidi-Boumédiène
Fiction
France, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
THE PRODIGAL SON
by Rani Massalha
Fiction
Tunisia, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Qatar
YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP
by Rakan Mayasi
Debut, Fiction
Belgium, Palestine, Lebanon
SeriesLab:
DÉRIFT
by Zahra Zuhair
Saudi Arabia
FLASH
by Sooyoung Kim
South Korea
FLYWEIGHTS
by Eldar Shibanov
Kazakhstan
MAD BOUNTY AND THE MIDNIGHT GUN
by Talemwa Pius
Uganda
MONEY TOWN
by Tony Koros
Kenya
SIDE EFFECTS
by Hind Metwalli
Egypt
SOCIETY
by Sushant Nagpal
India
TILL DEATH DO US PART
by Tomi Folowosele
Nigeria
