Minister of Culture Appoints Eng. Abdullah Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani as CEO of Film Commission

Riyadh, June 7, 2020, SPA -- Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Culture, appointed Eng. Abdullah bin Nasser Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani as CEO of the Film Commission, which was established to develop the Film Industry in the Kingdom. It comes as one of the 11 new cultural commissions recently launched by the Ministry of Culture to manage the Saudi cultural sector in its various directions. Eng. Abdullah Al Eyaf Al-Qahtani is one of the leading names in Saudi filmmaking and has worked as a director, producer, and writer in many distinguished local works since 2004. He also chaired arbitration committees in film festivals locally and regionally, and wrote critical cinematic articles in leading Saudi newspapers, such as Al Riyadh, Al Watan, and Asharq Al-Awsat. Al-Qahtani, who graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 2001, led the programs and events team at the Saudi Pavilion at Expo 2020. He also took over the management of programs and initiatives at King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) for three years. Besides, taking several leading positions in Saudi Aramco, including the chairmanship of the departments of advertising, artistic production, events, and conferences. The Film Commission will manage the film industry in the Kingdom through several key roles, including but not limited to; drawing up a comprehensive strategy, developing an ideal production environment that enables making Saudi films with high production standards and qualifies them to be promoted locally and internationally, supporting and empowering local talents in the filmmaking industry, encouraging investment, production and development of cinematic content, providing educational and professional programs, licensing sector activities, developing the intellectual property rights regarding films protection systems, and many other roles that aim to develop the local film industry to a level befitting the Kingdom's standing and the international standards. This comes in line with the implementation of the comprehensive cultural development project, which is run by the Ministry of Culture, and in fulfillment of the Saudi Vision 2030 goals aimed at transforming cultural activity into a sustainable and fruitful productive field. --SPA