A Message from His Royal Highness Prince

After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, we are pleased to welcome you again for the nineteenth edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival. 

The global health crisis has had huge consequences on our ecosystems both nationally and internationally and we must recover from all the losses. In this particular situation, we greatly appreciate the efforts made by our partners through their generous contributions, though they have also suffered from the pandemic too. Without their support, our festival could not be held.

The values that we have always shared are more than ever essential to humanity: to discover other people and cultures, to create a dialogue among civilizations and to live together in harmony.

The great Italian director Paolo Sorrentino presides over a magnificent jury who will consider the Official Competition in which, once again, world cinema will shine through the first and second works of directors, shaping the cinema of tomorrow.

Alongside this competition, festival-goers will enjoy a wide-ranging program of films from different nations. This diverse program will be shown in Marrakech through Gala Screenings attended by their cast members, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent program of avant-garde cinema, the Moroccan Panorama – a showcase of the best of our national film productions – ,  screenings of popular movies on the Jemaa El Fna Square and educational sessions for young audiences.

This year, the Festival pays tribute to four great names of the seventh art whose careers are as brilliant as they are inspiring: iconic Scottish performer and producer Tilda Swinton; US director James Gray and his remarkable works of contemporary cinema; Farida Benlyazid, a pioneer of Moroccan cinema whose career as a producer, director and screenwriter has brought us several classics of Moroccan cinema; and the talented Indian actor Ranveer Singh, whose rise to fame has made him one of today’s most iconic representatives of Bollywood.

The Festival’s “In Conversation With” series continues with exceptional personalities coming to Marrakech to discuss their vision and professional practice. 

And finally the Atlas Workshops, the Festival’s professional platform launched in 2018, will continue to assist and promote emerging talents from Africa and the Arab world. For the past two years, the program was conducted online and many of the films that took part in this platform have since been selected and won awards at some of the most prestigious film festivals worldwide. 

The magic of Cinema is once again here in Marrakech for all.

A very warm Welcome Back to the Marrakech International Film Festival.