It seems that nothing can get in the way of Saudi Arabia’s quest to crown itself as the region’s, or indeed one of the globe’s, major hubs for all things cinema, arts, and culture. The Kingdom continues on its path of developing a sustainable and self-reliant ecosystem of its own, pushing whatever pre-existing boundaries there ever was to the furthest, and the latest news to come out of the Gulf State only seems to prove that the ongoing efforts made by officials won’t be stopping anytime soon.
As Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s 2030 Vision — a strategic framework to diversify the country’s economy away from oil— keeps on materializing practically by the day, this week, it was announced that production hub NEOM, eponymously named after the futuristic compound it will part of, has struck a deal with local creative media studio Telfaz11, on a slate of TV shows and films to be released in the next few years.
According to a shared statement, the two parties have agreed on a total of nine original productions set to hit screens over the next three years with two features and one series already reportedly in their pre-production phase. What’s more, the collaboration foresees the opening of Telfaz11 offices in NEOM’s media hub, extending their presence within the GCC even further with headquarters already in place in Dubai and Riyadh.
“Our mission is to create a new world-class media hub at NEOM, one that supports the region’s industry to compete and succeed globally,” Wayne Borg, Managing Director of Media Industries, Entertainment, and Culture at NEOM, said in the released statement. “This partnership with Telfaz11 complements and accelerates. This partnership, coupled with our evolving infrastructure, crew depth, industry learning programs, and highly competitive incentive scheme shows we are well on our way to achieving these goals,” he continued.
Echoing on his statement, Alaa Faden, CEO and Co-Founder of Telfaz11, added: “We couldn’t be more honored to be at the center of NEOM’s next-generation media and entertainment ecosystem. Telfaz11 has consistently operated on the leading edge of innovation, from launching the first Netflix partnership in the region to leveraging our powerful social media presence. And this new partnership with NEOM is yet another milestone in that effort.”
Joining a lucky cohort of 30 other productions to have shot in the Gulf State over the past 18 months, Telfaz11 and NEOM’s collaboration is poised to open a new exciting chapter in an already thrilling journey of transforming the global cultural landscape— one in which the center might indeed be located on our side of the world, for once.