The organizers have decided to show the participating films on the Rotana channel in order to avoid a repetition of what happened in July last year when the festival was canceled at the eleventh hour following a directive from the Jeddah governorate. The date of transmission has yet to be announced.

Mamdouh Saleh, director of the Jeddah Film Festival, hopes to avoid the intervention by authorities with the new strategy. "With the help of a television channel, the films participating in the festival will be seen by a range of viewers in the Kingdom and other countries of the Gulf. Normally the films in festivals are viewed only by a limited number of spectators present in the hall. Usually the films are short and after one or two screenings, they fade from public notice," Salem said.

He added that the festival organizers would meet Rotana officials to decide the time and schedule of participating films.

Welcoming all kinds of films to the festival, Salem said, "The majority of film directors have expressed their willingness to participate in the new experiment." He added that all films scheduled for the last festival were expected to participate in the coming one. A Yemeni film will be the first to be shown in the festival. A closing function will be organized to award prizes to winners, he said.