Stars highlight diversity and empowerment at Jeddah film festival

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Stars on the red carpet at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah praised the festival’s support for women and films bringing unique perspectives to global audiences.

Turkish actress Tuba Buyukustun highlighted the importance of individual stories.

“Everyone has a different experience about this world… I believe that everyone, every individual, needs to express what they experienced in this life,” she told Rudaw's Payam Sarbast in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah on Thursday.

Buyukustun is widely popular in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the Arab world where Turkish TV series are frequently dubbed into Arabic and Kurdish.

Indian actress and film producer Priyanka Chopra was also at the film festival.

“The Red Sea Festival brings together cinema from all over the world to our part of the world, that makes me very proud,” Priyanka said.


“I think the way that the festival is supporting women and mentoring them and there is an open dialogue and it has become a very global exchange, particularly for women,” said American actress Marisa Tomei who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny.


Rudaw earlier interviewed another Oscar winner, Brendan Fraser, who discussed his award-winning film, The Whale, and emphasized the importance of teamwork and caring for others during the production process.