The 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival will be remembered as a triumph for Moroccan cinema. For the first time in the Festival’s history, the jury, chaired by Academy Award-winning US actor Jessica Chastain, awarded the Étoile d’Or to a Moroccan film: Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies. Kamal Lazraq’s Hounds won the Jury Prize. Both films were supported by the Atlas Workshop, the Festival’s industry platform, where they had won awards in 2021 and 2019 respectively.

Vibrant tributes were paid to two great figures of cinema: Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi. Meanwhile, the ‘In Conversation With’ program invited ten leading personalities to discuss cinema with Marrakech audiences.

In all, Festival audiences had the opportunity to discover 75 films from 36 countries in the event’s various sections and attended screenings and events in large numbers.

As it has every year since 2018, the Atlas Workshops brought together more than 300 professionals around 25 projects in development and films in post-production from 11 countries. Over its six editions, the Atlas Workshops platform has supported 136 projects and films, 57 of which hail from Morocco, and three of the award-winning films at this year’s Festival.

Despite a difficult economic climate, the Festival’s 20th edition lived up to all its promises. More than ever, it focused on cinema as a universal language for raising awareness and bringing people together. Once again, the Festival emphasized the diversity of world cinema, helped reveal new talent, and enabled festival-goers to meet some of the great names in filmmaking.