As Riyadh Season begins and the cooler weather takes over the Kingdom, the capital city's cultural calendar is welcoming another milestone this week as the European Film Festival officially opens begins its fifth consecutive year.
Running from November 3 to November 10 with public screenings hosted at VOX Cinemas Century Corner, the much loved and lauded film festival brings a powerful cultural dialogue to the Kingdom. Organised in collaboration with the Delegation of the European Union to Saudi Arabia, European member state embassies, the Film Commission, Arabia Pictures, and Fairmont Hotels, this year's showcase underscores Saudi Arabia's growing position as a premier global hub for international cinema, artistic exchange, and creative innovation.
Featuring a carefully curated program of 16 feature films and documentaries representing 16 European nations, the festival highlights the diverse traditions and dynamic storytelling defining modern European filmmaking. Audiences in Riyadh have the rare opportunity to experience acclaimed works fresh from prestigious international circuits including the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Sundance film festivals, with all screenings presented with dual Arabic and English subtitles.
The robust selection spans gripping historical dramas, contemporary relationship studies, and poignant documentary filmmaking:
- Sirat (Spain): Released in 2025, this film follows the journey of father and son as they travel into the Moroccan desert to search for Mar, Luis's missing daughter and Esteban's sister, who vanished during an underground techno rave. The title Sirāt references the Islamic eschatological bridge between paradise and hell—said to be thinner than a hair—blending raw survival realism with Sufi mysticism and spiritual tension.
- Maria's Silence (Latvia): Based on the true story of Maria Leiko, a famous Latvian-born German stage and silent-film actress. This silent film charts is a gripping historical drama directed by Dāvis Sīmanis, following Leiko's life as she is lured to 1930s Moscow and is subject to Stalin's totalitarian regime.
- Listen to the Land Speak (Ireland): Directed by Maurice O'Brien, Listen to the Land Speak is an evocative documentary following writer Manchán Magan as he journeys across Ireland to uncover the ancient myths, sacred sites, and ecological wisdom embedded within the landscape. The film weaves an unexpectedly personal narrative as Magan confronts a serious illness, offering a profound reflection on mortality, heritage, and our relationship with the natural world.
- Gașca de la Drept (Romania): Brought to life by director Iura Luncașu, Gașca de la Drept is a fast-paced Romanian comedy-drama following a group of law students navigating friendship, ambitions, and high-stakes legal dilemmas.
- Hold Onto Me (Cyprus): Following its premiere debut at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the Greek-language film follows Iris, an 11-year old who reunites with her father, but Iris gets into minor trouble and teams up with Aris in petty scams and thefts, an unconventional and fragile bond forms between them.
- La Grazia (Italy):
- 13 Days, 13 Nights (France): 13 Days, 13 Nights is a tense, real-world thriller based on the harrowing memoirs of Mohamed Bida, charting the chaotic August 2021 Taliban takeover of Kabul. The film follows a French security team led by Commander Bida, as they transform the besieged French embassy into a desperate sanctuary to safely evacuate 500 people amid escalating peril.
- Mr Nobody Against Putin (Denmark): Capturing the quiet resistance inside a state-run classroom, David Borenstein’s Oscar-winning Danish documentary follows a beloved Russian primary school teacher turned covert videographer as he secretly records the encroachment of state propaganda on his young students.
- The Luminous Life (Portugal): Set against a sun-drenched springtime Lisbon, João Rosas’ breezy debut feature The Luminous Life follows twenty-four-year-old Nicolau as he navigates stalled musical ambitions, lingering heartbreak, and the quiet promise of starting fresh.
- Sentimental Value (Norway): Exploring the complex relationship between two sisters and their estranged, charismatic film-director father as he attempts a theatrical comeback. It features an all-star ensemble cast including Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning.
- MInghun (Poland): Grief and cross-cultural tradition intersect in Jan P. Matuszyński’s moving Polish drama, which traces a grieving father and his father-in-law as they attempt to arrange a traditional Chinese post-mortem wedding ritual for his late daughter.
- Ciao! Ciao! (Malta): A sharp Maltese satirical comedy unfolding over a seemingly harmless dinner party where polite social graces rapidly decay into hilarious, chaotic revelations: the film turns a simple goodbye at the front door into an unravelling night of secrets, rivalries, and unexpected twists.
- The Last Ambassador (Austria): Framed through the tense lens of international diplomacy, Natalie Halla’s documentary profiles Manizha Bakhtari, the Afghan ambassador in Vienna who defied the Taliban’s return to power by refusing to step down, maintaining her diplomatic post as a defiant global spokesperson for women’s rights in exile.
- 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Ukraine): With an Oscar-winning director at the helm, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is a harrowing frontline documentary following a Ukrainian assault platoon as they navigate body-cam footage and real-time combat across a heavily fortified stretch of forest to liberate a ruined village
- Homecoming (Máhccan) (Finland): This film is a deeply personal Finnish documentary that follows Indigenous Sámi community members as thousands of stolen ancestral artefacts are finally repatriated from national museums, confronting historical trauma to reclaim their cultural heritage and spiritual connection.
- Berlin Hero (Germany): A bittersweet German satire following a struggling video-store owner who finds his life upended when a journalist mistakenly paints him as the mastermind behind a massive East German escape.
European Film Festival, from November 3 to November 10, 2026 at VOX Cinemas Century Corner, Riyadh
Various film showings, times and dates available
Buy your tickets here
euff.arabiapictures.sa
