Red Sea Film Festival Artistic Director Edouard Waintrop Won’t Return for Second Edition
Red Sea Film Festival, Saudi Arabia’s first international film event, gets underway, it’s become clear that the artistic director of the fest’s milestone first edition won’t be in charge of programming the second one.Edouard Waintrop, a former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight chief, was conspicuously absent Monday at the opening night gala at the Vox Cinemas multiplex in Jeddah’s historic Al Balad district.Instead of being on the star-studded red carpet, Waintrop was at his home in Spain suffering from exhaustion, he said, awaiting results from several medical exams after testing negative for COVID-19. And he won’t be returning to Jeddah, at least not in his guise as fest chief.