How did the stars look at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival?

Yesterday evening, Tuesday, May 14, the activities of the 77th Cannes Film Festival began in the French city of Cannes, which will extend from May 14 to May 25, with the slogan “The Heart of the Film Industry.”

The first Saudi film at the Cannes Film Festival The Saudi film “ Noura ” opened new horizons in Saudi cinema, as it was officially selected at the Cannes Film Festival as the first Saudi film to appear at the ancient festival, competing with 11 films during the course of the competition classified as “Un Certain Regard.” The film was a dramatic production by the pioneering director Tawfiq Al-Zaidi. Its events take place in the nineties in the Kingdom. In detail, “Noura,” which premiered locally in December at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will be released internationally, in the prestigious “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival, marking the first Saudi film to be screened. Displayed in Cannes, it becomes a symbol of the Kingdom's rapid growth.

Characters of the movie “Noura” The new Saudi newcomer, Maria Bahrawi, plays the main character of the film, and the events revolve around an illiterate orphaned young woman who lives in a remote village, where she faces an arranged marriage in which she will fall into a trap and need self-expression.

Then Noura intersects with an artist named Nader (played by Saudi star Yacoub Al-Farhan), who quit drawing and moved to the village to become a teacher.

This chaste meeting unleashes in Noura a passion for art, and thus, for a better life away from the village. The film stars Yacoub Al-Farhan, Maria Bahrawi, Abdullah Al-Sadhan, and Aisha.

Noura Film Award “Noura,” the first Saudi film to be shot in AlUla, won first prize in the Dow Film Competition Funding Award organized by the Saudi Film Commission, an initiative launched by the Saudi Ministry of Culture in September 2019 to support Saudi film production and support the next generation of filmmakers.

The film is produced by Al-Zaidi, American producer Paul Miller, the former CFO of the Doha Film Institute, which sponsored the film “Lamawazine” (which was Saudi Arabia’s submission to the Oscars in 2020), and Jordanian producer Sherif Al-Majali.