RIYADH – The General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Chairman Turki Al-Asheikh announced on Thursday the launching of a national program to discover talents under the title “Entertainment Challenges”, Saudi Press Agency said today.

The program aims to discover, develop and enable the best talents to reach world class levels. The program’s link is: https://geachallenges.com/, through which all can register.

The program aims to discover national talents in various fields of entertainment. The program’s scope would be broadened with development of talents of the Kingdom’s population. It also aims to encourage all segments of the society to take part with a local entertainment content that suits the Kingdom’s image and culture.

Those who win in the contests will receive a total support of SR20m to train and enhance their talents to attain world standards.

The winners of the top three places in each challenge will be able to join a training program to develop their talents and capabilities. The amount set aside is SR500,000 for first place, SR300,000 for second place and SR200,000 for third place.

The 20 entertainment challenges cover several fields, like song, poetry, comedy, graphic arts, circus, Olympiads, acting, folk dances, motorbike shows, cookery, automobile shows, caricature, skating, videos and photography, and events coverage, among others.

The GEA has announced that it has started receiving applications since Feb. 6. The participation in the challenges through the program’s website are open until April 30. The evaluation and nomination stage will be from May 1 to July 30. Live performance shows before judges will be during July 1 until Aug. 31. The voting stage will be during the period Sept. 1-30. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in October 2019.

All information on the conditions, rules and participants’ copyrights and answers to any other inquiries are available in the program’s website. – SPA