LAHORE: The Red Sea Labs has announced open call for the 5th edition of its The Lodge programme. It’s a long-term residency programme, in collaboration with Italy-based Torino FilmLab and sponsored by Film AIUla, offering a creative and professional film development experience to the filmmakers, including those from Pakistan.

The Lodge is open to Saudi, Arab, African, and Asian filmmakers and producers. This is the first year that the programme has opened its applications to Asia, marking an expansion in the offerings of the Red Sea Labs and making this year’s Lodge programme the biggest yet. The TorinoFilmLab is an Italian international audiovisual lab supporting talents from all over the world through training, development and funding. It’s an opportunity for Asian filmmakers, including those from Pakistan, to join the programme, which offers training as well funding for their feature films.

Shivani Pandya, the managing director of the Red Sea Film Foundation, said: “Continuing our journey of expanding and evolving the Red Sea Foundation’s programmes, we are pleased to announce the first expansion of one of our industry programmes, the Lodge, as it broadens its offerings to promising cinematic voices from Asia.”

The Lodge offers mentorship by cinema experts that will support the development of their film projects, preparing them for next level of industry opportunities. Sixteen projects will be selected for the opportunity for the filmmakers to develop their feature film project. Submissions are open until 11:59 pm KSA time on Sunday, Jan 7, 2024.

All workshops in 2024 will be conducted in person. The first workshop will take place in AIUla, an ancient oasis city in Medina province. The workshops will provide training across all aspects of film script development and film production, including financing, sales, and marketing. These workshops will equip the filmmakers with the skills and knowledge to take their projects forward. The Lodge Filmmakers will pitch their projects at the Red Sea Souk during the 4th Edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival 2024.

Red Sea Labs is one of pillars of the Red Sea Film Foundation while The Red Sea Lodge is an initiative under it. The young film makers can send their enquiries to labs@redseafilmfest.com.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2024