If anyone thinks that the Saudi film industry has changed dramatically, it is Haifaa al-Mansour.

When she filmed the director's debut in 2011 "Wadjda", she was forced to direct outdoor scenes "from inside the van" due to apartheid. There is no industry that can say that this can indeed provide her with a lot of support.

“It’s very logically difficult for me as a filmmaker,” she said.

Al-Mansour has returned for years, filming two other features in Saudi Arabia, 2019’s “Perfect Candidate” and the upcoming crime thriller “Unidentified,” but is now full of a country that is investing in arts and culture.

"Now I feel like I have the streets," she said. "It's a great feeling to get home and be able to shoot in the streets and see the arts thriving in the country. It's really an amazing moment."

Al-Mansour spoke at the Cannes Film Festival in part of the Global Dialogue Summit held at the festival. The film Alula was founded in 2020 and officially launched in Cannes that year, overseeing the historic filmmaking event in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, home to a UNESCO-style heritage site, but with increasing studio facilities and productions.

“I think it’s such a beautiful, beautiful place in terms of the landscape, and they have this amazing incentive, too.” “The people there want to promote this place, so you go there and have a team that can help you find your place and make sure your staff are taken care of. It takes a lot of burden when you have a partner who wants you to succeed and invest on the road.”

Stuart Sutherland, CEO of Celtic Film Entertainment, also spoke on the panel, a person with direct experience filming Gerard Butler's activist "Kandahar" in Alula in 2021. At the time, it was the biggest movie shot in Saudi Arabia. The shooting of “Kandahar” actually helps to form the blueprint of the blueprint in how to handle large-scale productions.

"My thought was that we should go to Alura," he said. "But I'm like a blank canvas. Everything is possible, and we're working hard, starting from the ground."

Since Alula welcomed Kandahar, Zaid Shaker, executive director of the film Alula, added that a lot has happened. "In 2024, we hosted over 85 projects including features, scriptless programs, video clips and different projects," he said.

Outside the sound phase of Alula, the entire filmmaking landscape in Saudi Arabia has leaped forward and boundaries, from an industry where some rogue directors try to piece together movies in any way possible to a rapidly rising industry in order to welcome more skilled workers on the day.

Al-Mansour said she didn't just think the change went from "Wadjda" to "perfect candidate", but was between the feature and her upcoming movie Unidentified.

"It's great to see people who have more experience, about what the movie is, where the scout is and the real actor director, like sitting in a dirty hotel, waiting for someone who knows someone," she explained.

For "unidentified", expected to be released this fall, she said she has a "stunning, savage Saudi woman" who serves as the actor.

She said: "She's like, how many extras do you want? I'm going to bring them to you, I was really skeptical at first, but she's great, great, really great, and she's great."