Saudi Arabia has canceled this year’s edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, an event that has drawn such Hollywood A-listers as Emily Blunt, Adrien Brody, Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Caine, as fighting in the region rages.
The annual event, which also draws Bollywood and Arab movie stars, was scheduled for December in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Organizers said it was being moved to late next year to ensure that it “takes place at the right time and under the right conditions.”
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target oil facilities and bases in the kingdom. Strikes claimed by the group on Riyadh, the capital, disrupted flights into and out of the international airport Saturday.
The festival, one of the region’s largest, is the latest major event to be canceled since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran in February. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, a Formula 1 race also in Jeddah, was canceled in March.
Both the festival and the race have been criticized as attempts by the kingdom to distract attention from its human and civil rights abuses.
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