Youth film fest: Deadline for nominations today

Badea Abu Al-Naja MAKKAH — The deadline for entries into the Saudi Youth Film Festival, which will be held in Jeddah from Jan. 26-29, will end on Thursday. The Presidency of Youth Welfare is sponsoring the four-day event with the Effat University. A three-member judging panel will evaluate the participating films and pick up the winners. The panelists are Abdo Khal, novelist and columnist; Abdul Ilah Al-Sinani, actor and academic who is teaching at King Saud University in Riyadh; and Uhad Kamel, young Saudi actress, director and script writer. The festival will feature movie shows, workshops, critique sessions and other activities that are aimed at supporting talented young Saudis. Mamdouh Salem, director of the festival, said the hourlong workshops will be held daily from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., the movie shows will be presented from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and the critique sessions from 11 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. He hoped that the festival would be an opportunity for a number of talented young Saudi men and women to be recognized. "We have many young talents who have been living in oblivion for long years. It is time for them now to come out and prove themselves," Salem said. He said Effat University, the academic sponsor, will organize the workshops, which will discuss the youth cinema in the Kingdom and abroad.