Eva Longoria took to the stage at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia to advocate for the push for greater inclusivity, equity, and diversity in Hollywood and across entertainment media. This comes in response to major DEI programs shut down within the industry.

The Red Sea Film Festival was founded in 2019 and takes place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The festival celebrates worldwide excellence in film and highlights Arab-based stories and productions. Eva Longoria is a Mexican-American actress and later producer. She also established the Eva Longoria Foundation in 2012, using the program to encourage and aid women in education and entrepreneurship.  The Foundation particularly focused on helping Latinas.

“This kind of pendulum swing of DEI programs being cut back means a lot of directors and writers from those programs will suffer because they give opportunity where opportunity is not usually there…It’s much harder for women to break through in Hollywood, and it’s much harder for people of color to break through because I don’t think there’s a studio exec in a tower going, ‘I don’t want to hire people of color.’ They just hire people with the most experience,” she said at the festival.

“Telling the stories in marginalized communities is not always easy. This region (the Middle East) knows that. And the filmmakers that are represented here, you see the stories that are at this film festival, they should be applauded,” Longoria concluded.

The Red Sea International Film Festival 2024 takes place from December 5th – 14th.