With Hollywood strapped for cash, Saudi Arabia is re-emerging as a key financial backer

[Passages]

A-listers and dealmakers headed to the kingdom's coastal city of Jeddah for the Red Sea Film Festival this week.


Dec. 4, 2025, 3:11 PM EST
By Rebecca Keegan
Hollywood is feeling the lure of Saudi Arabian money.

The stars are taking it, with many set to receive checks for attending this week’s Red Sea Film Festival. Studios are interested in it, with their executives traveling to the kingdom to meet about potential deals. And at the highest levels, Saudi money could end up helping to finance a massive media merger.

For the entertainment industry, Saudi financing has become more appealing as other sources of money have dried up in the aftermath of the 2020 Covid pandemic, the 2023 dual actors’ and writers’ strikes, and shifting audience habits away from film and TV to social media.

“Money is good, that’s Hollywood’s perspective,” said entertainment attorney Schuylar (Sky) Moore at Greenberg Glusker. “For the Saudis, it’s all about building their own film industry, and they’re trying to get the expertise and the people there.”

But Saudi Arabia’s controversial human rights record makes the relationship an uneasy one for some in the West — and a sensitive topic to talk about in Hollywood, where more than a dozen insiders including agents, producers, executives, bankers and publicists declined to go on the record about the inrush of potential Saudi cash.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/hollywood-saudi-arabia-key-financial-backer-red-sea-film-festival-rcna246854

Saudi Arabia: Still no justice for state-sanctioned murder of ...
Amnesty International
Latest › News › 2023 › 09
Sep 29, 2023 — ... Khashoggi was the victim of “a pre-meditated extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible”
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/saudi-arabia-still-no-justice-for-state-sanctioned-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-five-years-on/

[GreatGazoo]

1. Films have been used as soft power since at least WW1

On my scorecard, we have moved KSA far, far more than they moved us. When we break down ethnic and gender stereotypes in a repressive country we win.

Back in the 1980s, 'Little House on the Prarie' was one of the only US TV shows allowed to air in the most repressive theocratic countries. Americans saw that show as tame and wholesome but a generation of girls growing up in places like KSA saw something subversive and hopeful -- a world perceived through the eyes of a girl. A girl with agency and opportunities.

The Jury President for Red Seas' 2024 fest was Spike Lee. For 2025 it will be Sean Baker whose breakout was the 2015 film Tangerine which features a transgender protagonist. His 2017 film was 'The Florida Project' which follows a 6-year-old girl living in a motel with her rebellious mother. His current project is "Left Handed Girl."

Should we stop using soft power on KSA??

[Passages]

2. These actions by Hollywood seeking Saudi money is steeped in benevolence?

[GreatGazoo]

3. Promoting women's rights and transgender rights in repressive countries

while using a small amount ($2.5-mil) of the festival organizer's money to do so. That is a big win!

I'm unclear what you are objecting to.

https://apnews.com/video/a-listers-gather-for-women-in-cinema-celebration-at-red-sea-international-film-festival-ee8babdeb6234557abc297c7bd5255b0

[Passages]

4. Not in my opinion, no. Not a big win.