‘Giant’ Director Rowan Athale on Opening Red Sea Film Festival: ‘I Looked at the Speakers and It’s Juliette Binoche, Jessica Alba, Michael Caine, Vin Diesel, Sean Baker … and Me’

The fifth edition of the Red Sea Film Festival opened its doors on Thursday night in Jeddah, with the regional premiere of “Giant,” telling the story of ’90s British boxing icon Prince Naseem Hamed, raising the curtain.

For director Rowan Athale, the experience was enthralling but also wholly bizarre, largely because of the sheer amount of star-wattage in the room.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been to a lot of festivals, but last night.. I’ve just never seen anything like it, it’s was like the Oscars,” he said, speaking at the Variety Lounge presented by Red Sea Film Festival on Friday. “The hardest thing was when I looked at the speakers, and it’s Juliette Binoche, it’s Jessica Alba, it’s Michael Caine, it’s Vin Diesel, it’s Sean Baker… and it’s me.”

The evening was no less peculiar for Amir El-Masry, who plays Hamed, who said that it was “truly surreal to be surrounded by people whose bodies of work I really, really admire and respect.”

He added: “You know, across the world, there are very few moments where you can put the likes for Aishwarya Rai and Kirsten Dunst together, where here it does it effortlessly.”

One of the other star guests in the room on opening night was Naseem Hamed himself, someone who both El-Masry and Athale admitted to being huge fans of when he was still a professional boxer. While “Giant” first premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October, it was in Jeddah where the former sporting legend first attended a public screening, bringing his whole family with him to the Red Sea Film Festival.

“I’m extremely proud of the film, but having him there was so validating. To see him go: that was fantastic, that was great, and you made me look good,” said El-Masry. “And he brought his WBC belt and put it over me at the end, and he was like, now you know what a real champion boxer feels like.”