‘Chhello Show,’ India’s official Oscar entry, has been selected for the Red Sea International Film Festival 2022 in Saudi Arabia. The film will compete against the best of Arab, Asian, and African cinema at the festival’s second edition, which runs from December 1 to December 10 in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The jury for this year’s Red Sea Competition is chaired by Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone. Other titles in the competition include Morocco’s Omar Mouldouira’s ‘A Summer in Boujad,’ Saudi Arabia’s Mohamed Al Salman’s ‘Raven Song,’ Iran’s Reza Jami’s ‘A Childless Village,’ South Korea’s July Jung’s ‘Next Sohee,’ and others.
The Red Sea International Film Festival 2022 will feature 131 feature and short films from 61 countries. ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ by Shekhar Kapur will be the Opening Night film on December 1. The closing film of the festival is the world premiere of ‘Valley Road,’ by Saudi writer-director Khaled Fahd.
‘Last Film Show’ (‘Chhello Show’), directed by Pan Nalin, is a Gujarati-language coming-of-age drama about a nine-year-old boy named Samay (Bhavin Rabari). The film has been chosen to represent India in the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards in 2023.
Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, Producer Dheer Momaya and Director Pan Nalin in a joint statement said, “We are elated that our film `Last Film Show` is in competition at 2022 Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.