EXCLUSIVE: The Red Sea Film Foundation has announced its six honorees for its annual Women in Cinema Gala, which spotlights the contributions of female filmmakers, creators, actors and executives to the entertainment industry. 

This year’s lineup includes Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi, Nigerian actress-producer Genevieve Nnaji, Indian actress-singer Tara Sutaria, Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo, Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andani and Saudi actress-writer Aixa Kay. 

This year marks the first year with three spotlight honorees from the African continent. All the women will be honored at an annual event hosted by the Red Sea Film Foundation in Cannes at the Hotel Du Cap. 

Marrakchi was born and raised in Casablanca (Morocco) and left for Paris at the age of 18 to pursue her studies. Her debut feature film, Marock (2005) was showcased in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Her second feature, Rock the Casbah (2013), boasted a stellar cast, including Hiam Abbass, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal, Morjana Alaoui and Omar Sharif. Marrakchi has also directed two episodes of Damien Chazelle’s The Eddy (2020) for Netflix and worked on several French productions.  

Nnaji is a Nigerian actress, producer, and one of the leading figures in African cinema. Widely regarded as a pioneer of Nollywood’s global expansion, she has built a career defined by critical acclaim, commercial success, and cultural impact. She made her directorial debut with Lionheart, which became the first Nigerian film acquired by Netflix and was selected as Nigeria’s submission to the Academy Awards. Beyond her work on screen, Nnaji is a producer committed to advancing the quality, reach, and global positioning of African storytelling.

Sutaria’s journey in the arts is an amalgamation of music, theatre, and cinema. A classically trained vocalist and ballerina, she has graced prestigious stages across India, Bhutan, and Japan, with a voice marked by technical prowess and emotional depth. This foundation became the soul of her on-screen presence as she rose to prominence with Student of the Year 2, followed by an almost decade-long career in Indian cinema. Passionate about female-led stories, Sutaria earned praise for Apurva, while her next film, Toxic, is set for worldwide release in 2026. 

Born in Rwanda, Dusabejambo’s journey as a filmmaker started in 2008, when she joined a group of young filmmakers in her neighborhood in Almond Tree Films. In 2010, she responded to a call-out for a script competition by the Tribeca Film Institute, which she won. This victory enabled her to make her first short film, LYIZA, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 and won a Bronze Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival in 2012. Clementine worked as a researcher for Why We Hate?, a documentary series by Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney. Her short films have been presented and awarded at several festivals, including the Carthage Film Festival, where she won the Tanit de Bronze in 2012 and 2018 in Carthage. Her first feature film, Ben’Imana, has been officially selected to screen in Cannes 2026 – Un Certain Regard.

Andani is an independent filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia, known for her critically acclaimed debut, The Mirror Never Lies. The film received numerous awards both domestically and internationally, including a Best Director nomination at the 2011 Indonesian Film Festival before winning in the same category at the 2012’s Bandung Film Festival. She then went on to direct The Seen and Unseen, which won the Feature Fiction Award at the Adelaide Film Festival. Her 2021 film Yuni premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Platform Prize, followed by Before, Now & Then, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2023, she expanded into television with the Netflix original series Cigarette Girl. 

Kay is a Saudi actress and writer, whose film work includes: Jasmine Road, a Canadian production directed by Warren Sulatycky, for which she received multiple Best Actress nominations at international festivals;  Canadian short film Hatch, for which she earned a Best Actress award from the Reelworld Screen Institute; Saify, which premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival; and Norah, which had its European premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Kay has held leading and co-starring roles in series such as Almarsaand Shari Al Asha, both of which ranked in the Top 10 on Shahid across multiple countries throughout their airing. She also worked as a head writer on two MBC comedies and is developing the series Mother Afraa through the Red Sea Series Labs.