He was appointed in June this year as artistic director for the festival, taking over from Saudi filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh.
The Red Sea International Film Festival’s artistic director Edouard Waintrop will not be attending the event in its inaugural year, according to a report in Screen International
The festival, which launched on Monday night in the coastal city of Jeddah, confirmed that Waintrop had cancelled his trip due to health reasons after having fallen ill over the weekend.
Waintrop, a French film critic who headed up the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar between 2012 and 2018, joined the Red Sea Film Festival in June.
The Red Sea Film Festival is due to run until Dec 16.
