East Africa Takes Its Seat at Red Sea 2025: Kenyan Docs & Regional Projects Head to Jeddah

Several East African films — including Kenya’s documentary Truck Mama — are among the projects selected for the 2025 Red Sea Film Festival and Souk market, spotlighting rising regional cinema on an international stage.

What’s Happening

A wave of East African projects has been invited to the 2025 edition of the Red Sea Festival in Saudi Arabia — a major sign of recognition for Kenyan and regional cinema. Among them is the Kenyan documentary Truck Mama, which follows a single mother working as a truck driver across dangerous routes to support her family. Its inclusion alongside films from Uganda and other countries underlines growing continental representation.

Other East African entries reportedly include work from Uganda and more — all part of a larger selection of African films being featured in the Festival’s competitive sections and the Souk project-market.

What to Watch

• How Truck Mama and others perform at festival screenings and reactions from global audiences.

• Whether any Souk-marketed East African projects secure financing or distribution deals.

• If this momentum helps build a stronger East African presence in Arab-Middle Eastern and global cinema circuits.

FSA Take

2025 could mark a turning point: East African voices — once peripheral in global festival circuits — are now booking slots at major showcases like Red Sea. For filmmakers, this isn’t just opportunity. It’s momentum.