The Jeddah festival, Saudi Arabia’s only film festival, was cancelled late on Friday 17^th July just hours before it was due to begin. It was believed that pressure from religious elements was behind the sudden reversal. The festival was due to show 71 features from the Gulf and 15 short films from Europe.

On Saturday 18^th July the festival’s organiser, Mamdouh Salem told Reuters, ‘Late last night, the governorate of Jeddah notified us of the festival's cancellation, after it received instructions from official parties. We were not told why.’

The move came just six weeks after the comedy Menahi was shown at the capital city of Riyadh – the first public screening of a film there in more than thirty years. The screening provoked some protests, some organised and involving the kingdom’s religious police organisation, The Commission for the Promotion of virtue and the Prevention of Vice. And in 2008, Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the former head of the religious police, was removed from his post by the relatively progressive King Abdullah after denouncing the cinema as evil.

Saudi writer Abdullah Al-Alami described the cancellation as a ‘dark day for art and literature in our modern history,’ while filmmaker Mahmoud Sabbagh commented, "We were hoping that things like the Jeddah film festival, that these very humble efforts would lead the change. But we got the message it is not the time.’

Jeddah city spokesman Ahmad al-Ghamdi, a spokesman for Jeddah city said the festival was cancelled because the event ‘lacked preparations’.