Will Smith Encourages Saudi Filmmakers to Embrace Universal Visual Language: ‘As Soon as People Have to Read a Subtitle, There’s a Little Bit of Disconnect’

Reflecting on his three decades atop the global box office, superstar Will Smith honed in on a winning formula: When you want to conquer international markets, keeping taciturn is often key.

“As soon as people have to read a subtitle or translate, there’s a little bit of disconnect,” says Smith. “So generally, if you can find non-dialogue ways [to transmit an emotional beat], they translate more globally. In terms of action, in terms of comedy, and in terms of the delivery of emotion, I’m always looking for the non-dialogue way to deliver the most critical parts.”

Smith shared his insights at this year’s Saudi Film Confex, a Riyadh-based trade confab where the Oscar-winning star was guest of honor. And beyond the fact that Smith’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” has recently become Saudi Arabia’s top-grossing film of all time, the actor’s presence in Riyadh held wider auspice.

After decades in the dark, the Saudi film industry is more than making up for lost time, with the local production, distribution and exhibition sectors all seeing rapid growth. Said growth – and with it, that evergreen prerogative that great potential leads to greater responsibility – both underscored and informed all the talks at the Confex, which ran from Oct. 9 – 12.

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Saudi Film Confex

The second edition of Confex featured more than 30 panel discussions, 15 workshops, and an exhibition spanning more than 16 areas of the film value chain, all together offering a snapshot of an emerging industry defining its identity and ambitions in real time. The many panelists pointed towards opportunities embracing AI workflows and popular animation – with a number of successful manga adaptations pointing towards the Saudi-Japanese partnership as an avenue of promise.

And nearly all focused on mass-appeal.

In recent months, homegrown hits like “Mandoob” parlayed local success towards international releases in France and the U.K., just as adventure films like “Hajjan” – from Cannes acclaimed auteur Abu Bakr Shawky (“Yomeddine”) — hit Saudi screens after a world premiere in Toronto. (Another recent success has been the action satire “Shabab Albomb,” adapted from the cult TV series “Firecrackers Youth,” from a decade prior.)

This sterling record has helped the domestic industry flourish, leading to record-breaking attendance at this year’s Saudi Film Confex, which expected 65,000 participants and happily welcomed 5,000 more, and which resulted in 25 agreements signed to the tune of $60 million. This local growth has only whetted appetites for international expansion – which brings us back to a certain guest of honor with a shrewd view of that particular concern.

Indeed, more so than many of his peers, Smith has always been remarkably forthcoming about the machinations and logistics of global outreach, often likening his position to that of a diplomat or ambassador.

“As a movie star, [you’re] cultivating a specific global relationship,” he explains. ”You’re taking the audience into consideration and you’re delivering on your relationship [and doing so] with a more holistic view of the business.”

“There are local aesthetics and global aesthetics,” says Smith, pointing to the rise of Korean cinema as a more contemporary example of the latter and to his own childhood fascination with Bruce Lee as an earlier iteration.

“Bruce Lee was all I knew of China when I was 10 years old,” he says. “Bruce Lee introduced me to Chinese culture, and I wanted to be like [him]. So I would say, who is willing to [do the same]? Who is going to step up and be the person that carries their culture to the world?”

Saudi Film Confex

Of course, charismatic idols wouldn’t be enough to pave an international path, as the actor made clear. Instead, local filmmakers would need to accent universal themes and universal forms, striking a precise – and often challenging – balance between authenticity and accessibility, language and all.  

That particular line echoed across so many of the Confex panels, especially those that emphasized cinema’s power for soft diplomacy. Rather than competing against Hollywood, so many Saudi filmmakers instead want to offer a corrective – most notably to the overwhelmingly negative light too often shone on the Arab world.

Former head of Saudi Intelligence and onetime ambassador to both the U.K. and the U.S., Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud praised cinema’s potential for that exact kind of positive cultural diplomacy at a Confex panel attended by the country’s inaugural and still-sitting minister of culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud.

“A picture is worth a thousands words,” said the crown prince, echoing similar advice from the onetime fresh prince, before evoking director Agusti Villaronga’s young King Faisal biopic “Born a King.”

Released to regional box-office success in 2019, that Spanish-U.K. co-production was the first large-scale international feature to shoot in the Kingdom, relying on local cast and crew all the way back in 2017. Less than a decade later, the domestic industry now has the incentives and infrastructure to develop, finance and produce and distribute such titles internally – and with all that comes the hunger to get those commercial works out globetrotting.

“You are at an unprecedented point,” Smith said with encouragement. “This is a unique and rare opportunity where the world is waiting to see what you do and waiting to hear what you say. I would say, take it seriously. You have the resources, you have the support, you have the history, now’s the time to deliver.”

Saudi Film Confex