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‘Hope to make it hub for good cinema’: Shivani Pandya Malhotra on spearheading the Red Sea International Film Festival

Media professional Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who put the Dubai International Film Festival on the map, moved base to Jeddah for the Red Sea International Film Festival.

4 min readJeddah (saudi Arabia)Updated: Dec 20, 2025 02:47 PM IST

Golden Globes Gala Dinner - Arrivals - The Red Sea International Film Festival 2025

(L-R) Shivani Pandya Malhotra, Helen Hoehne, President, Golden Globes, Jomana R Alrashid and Faisal Baltyuor attend the Golden Globes Gala Dinner at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival)

First Dubai, now Jeddah. Media professional Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who put the Dubai International Film Festival on the map, moved base to Jeddah for the Red Sea International Film Festival. The RSIFF, in its fifth year, is steadily building its focus on cinemas from the Arab world, Asia and Africa, while forging global ties. She speaks to Shubhra Gupta on her journey, and what makes the Red Sea a December destination for cinephiles.

You spearheaded the Dubai International Film Festival, which was the first of its kind in the region. How did you come to be heading the RSIFF?

I was working for Dubai Media city and we came up with the idea of doing a film festival and supporting the ecosystem in UAE. I was part of the Dubai film festival for 14 years, which we started in 2004. After that, Saudi opened in 2017-18 for the film and entertainment sector, and that’s when I was approached, for the setting up of the Red Sea Foundation, and the film festival. It was a very exciting proposition for me, to draw people back from the internet to a collective viewing experience in theatres.

The idea is to expose people here to films they would ordinarily not have heard about, because audience involvement is key. We are expanding our outreach in schools and universities for cinema literacy, which is important if we are looking at developing an industry.

It’s not just about becoming actors and directors and producers, there are so many other aspects to creating cinema, and under the Foundation we are strategically addressing all sectors.

How would you say your experience here is different from Dubai?

In Dubai, 90 percent of the people are expats, only 10 per cent local. Here it is the other way around, and I’m happy that the films we’ve produced and supported have done well at the box office. We don’t need to look at territories outside to recover costs, which is usually such a pressure.

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The sizable presence of Bollywood stars adds to the red carpet glitter, plus it’s nice to see their personal side in conversation, which I think is. a great pillar of the festival. How important is Bollywood and Indian cinema to the Red Sea IFF? Do you see the ties deepen as you go along?

Indian cinema has always been hugely popular with audiences across the Arab world, and it’s something we’re really proud to celebrate at the festival. In every edition it’s important for us to bring both films and talent from India to our audiences and celebrate the fandom that has grown organically. This year, it was a real highlight to welcome the iconic Rekha to present the restored 1981 classic Umrao Jaan in its international premiere, as well as to hear from figures such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kriti Sanon and Alia Bhatt through our In Conversation With strand. The ties between India and the Arab world continue to grow stronger, and our programming plays an important role in nurturing and strengthening that cultural connection year after year.

Five years down. Where do you think you will be, five years from now?

I’m very proud of the fact that four films (The Voice Of Hind Rajab, Palestine 36, All That’s Left Of You, The President’s Cake) we have supported have been nominated for the Oscars. We hope to keep growing, and make Red Sea, the souk and the festival, the hub for good cinema.