London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

British Council’s report on Saudi film industry highlights challenges

In-depth research by the British Council in Saudi Arabia assessing the film industry landscape emphasized the Kingdom’s potential for more films to be made by Saudis, in Saudi Arabia, about the Kingdom.
The Saudi Film Skills report launched on Thursday is the first report of its kind, coming only two years after the Saudi government lifted a 35-year ban on the film industry in the country.

“The purpose of the study is to define the gaps in the industry, and as filmmakers we know the gaps already. However, we need to define it with numbers, with accurate data, so that we have a plan sufficient to support the industry,” Saudi filmmaker Hajar Al-Naim told Arab News.

“This is very beneficial for all of us, the government, filmmakers and investors,” she said. “There are many gaps the research has discovered and we were not aware of them before.”

The research was carried out in 2019-2020, and it highlights the key skills needed to strengthen and develop Saudi Arabia’s film industry in the future after surveying 422 people in the sector. Forty percent of respondents were filmmakers, 30 percent were students, and 17 percent crew.

According to the report, there is tremendous economic potential for film in Saudi Arabia, with Saudi consumers preferring to watch films reflecting their own culture.

It showed that 93 percent of all Saudi film companies film locally, while 35 percent of those surveyed said that the biggest advantage of the local film sector is the cast and on-screen talent, followed by the availability of film locations (19 percent) and market potential and audience demand (17 percent).

Moreover, the film sector is mainly characterized by its young workforce, with 72 percent of respondents being younger than 30, and 34 percent of them were female.

Women working in the sector had different motivations from their male peers. For instance, 51 percent of women said they work in film because of their love of visual storytelling, compared to only 36 percent of men. Moreover, only 2 percent of female stakeholders indicated finance as the leading motivator, compared to 16 percent of men.

Nonetheless, this promising sector also faces real challenges, as nearly half of respondents (43 percent) said that financing is the greatest barrier for producers and companies over the next five years, while 13 percent said it is the lack of a skilled cast and 11 percent said film training and education access.

Recruiting crews is also a significant issue for Saudi film companies, as more than half of surveyed companies found recruitment difficult, the biggest issue being skill shortages. Forty percent of companies cited a lack of job-specific skills, education or experience as the biggest challenge in recruiting. This was followed closely by the cost of labor (38 percent).

Al-Naim thinks that the Saudi film industry lacks the integrated mix that defines an industry, including regulation, funding and infrastructure.

Another issue facing the industry is lack of below-the-line crew. “Everyone in the industry wants to work in the above-the-line jobs, they want to be directors, producers, actors, and screenwriters,” she said, “while we lack below-the-line jobs such as operators, art directors, and supervisors. What will attract international productions to Saudi Arabia is when we have the below-the-line crew. If we don’t have them it means we don’t have the basis of the industry.”

More than half of all Saudi productions were short films (54 percent), followed by web productions (30 percent); only 4 percent were feature films.

Online streaming and over-the-top services were the viewing platforms with the greatest opportunity for Saudi film in the future, with Netflix (50 percent),
YouTube (39 percent) and Shahid by MBC (4 percent).

More than a third of the film sector resides in Riyadh (39 percent), followed by 29 percent residing in the western cities of Jeddah and Makkah. The research, conducted by London-based research agency Nordicity, is intended to widen the understanding of professionals in the culture sector in Saudi Arabia and the

UK about the possibilities for collaboration in the area of films, and to develop programs and projects to support the sector.

Within the industry, there is a considerable interest in working with the UK film sector, with nearly a third of film producers and companies indicating an interest, and 72 percent of those surveyed very interested in partnering with the UK.

Saudi film producers and companies highlighted the UK sector’s professionalism and their pre-production strengths.

Of those, almost half (47 percent) perceived the most significant benefit of collaborating to be the UK’s leading film industry experience, followed by its international standards (21 percent). In terms of challenges, cultural differences were cited as the biggest issue, followed by the cost of travel (20 percent).
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×