JEDDAH: Thirty-three films have been selected out of hundreds of submissions for screening at the Jeddah Literary Club during the Youth Film Festival, which will begin on Saturday.

The movies will compete for Best Short Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Director Memorial, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Photography and Best Screenplay. In the student competition, categories will include Best Narrative Short Film Award and Best Documentary Award.

The festival has been organized by the General Presidency of Youth Welfare with the cooperation of Rowad Media and Effat University.

The event will continue until Tuesday with the participation of a number of celebrities.

The competitions, divided into two categories: “General Competition” and “Competition Among Students,” welcomes short films and documentaries with the aim of developing the creativity of the youth and enhancing their talent.

The goal of the film festival is to provide the Kingdom with new artistic and cultural thoughts, besides building the vision of Saudi film makers competitively and in line with national customs and traditions. It is also a platform for young filmmakers to get international recognition.

Mamdouh Salem, the director of the film festival, said that they chose the Jeddah Literary Club as the center for the festival due to the convenience of having all of the required technical services and space on hand.

He said that they received a number of films for participation in the festival, and the jury comprising writer Abdo Khal, artist Abdul Ilah Sinani and film director Ahad Kamil, all Saudis, selected the best ones for the finals.

The festival will open with the screening of the famous film “Journey to Makkah,” with an aim to promote values, patriotism, Islamic culture and religious motivation among young people.

“Journey to Makkah” is a well-known film based on the journey of a Muslim traveler, Ibn Battuta, and his experience of traveling from his country of Morocco to Makkah to perform Haj in the days when there were no planes, and people traveled only on horse backs, camels and in boats for months and years through the deserts and sea.

During the festival, Saudi legends will be honored for their continued support in developing society through film-making.

The festival will be divided into three main categories, starting with a series of workshops provided by experts from Effat University in the morning and afternoon, a film screening at noon and a one-hour discussion late in the evening.