The fifth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival saw Akio Fujimoto’s Lost Land take home the top prize, the Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film for the Rohingya refugee drama. Along with the prize. the filmmaker also won a cash prize of $100,000.
Fujimoto accepted the award from Anora filmmaker Sean Baker, who was the head of the Red Sea Competition jury.
Lost Land is described as an intimate portrait of two siblings who seek to flee persecution in Myanmar. In the film, two refugee children - 4-year-old Shafi and his 9-year-old sister, Somira - leave a refugee camp in Bangladesh and make the dangerous journey to Malaysia to reunite with their family. It features a cast of non-professional actors.
The film had its world premiere in the Horizons section at Venice this year, where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize. Lost Land also bagged the jury grand prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. The film was backed by Kazutaka Watanabe, Angèle de Lorme, Sujauddin Karimuddin, Elise Shick, and Christian Jilka.
Besides the 'Golden Yusr', Cherien Dabis' family drama, All That's Left of You won the Silver Yusr and a USD 30,000 cash prize. It is also Jordan's official submission for the Oscars, one of three films about Palestinian history.
The 2025 edition of the Red Sea Film Festival officially concludes on December 13 after days of drawing celebrities from around the world.
Bollywood actors like Kartik Aaryan, Salman Khan, Alia Bhatt, and Kriti Sanon also graced the festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
