23rd edition November 20th to 28th, 2026
23rd edition
20 to 28 November, 2026
Hailing from Casablanca, Naïma Elmcherqui (1943–2024) was an iconic figure of Moroccan cinema, theater, and television. Drawn to the performing arts from an early age and encouraged by family and friends, she made her passion her profession.
The 1960s and 1970s saw her become a household name through collaborations with Tayeb Seddiki and performances with renowned theater troupes, among them Al Maâmora and Moroccan state radio. She went on to be seen on the big screen in films including Souheil Ben Barka’s Noces de sang (Blood Wedding, (1977), Moumen Smihi’s 44 ou les récits de la nuit (forty-four, or bedtime stories, Forty-Four, or Bedtime Stories (1981), and Mostafa Derkaoui’s Les Beaux jours de Sheherazade (The Beautiful Days of Sheherazade 1982). In 1989, Badis, a landmark of Moroccan cinema, marked her first collaboration with Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi, with whom she made three more films : À la recherche du mari de ma femme (In Search of My Wife’s Husband, (1992) and its sequel, Lalla Hobby (1996), both of which met with popular acclaim, and Les Voisines d’Abou Moussa (2003), a historical film in which she had a memorable turn as a queen. In 1993, Elmcherqui worked for the first time for the celebrated Cinecittà Studios when she took the lead role in Maurizio Zaccaro’s Article 2. In 2006, Franco-Moroccan actor and director Roschdy Zem cast her as his mother in his first feature-length film, the French box-office hit Mauvaise foi (Bad Faith). Her final role for the cinema came in 2020 in Mohamed Mouftakir’s The Fall of Apple Trees, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden—twenty years after she had been named Best Actress for her performance in À la recherche du mari de ma femme (In Search of My Wife’s Husband) at the National Film Festival in Tangier. In parallel with her film roles, Elmcherqui was a key figure on Moroccan television, appearing in numerous TV movies and soap operas that confirmed her immense popularity.
Deeply compassionate, Elmcherqui committed herself to supporting numerous charitable and humanitarian causes. In particular, as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for many years, she distinguished herself defending the rights of children.
Hailing from Casablanca, Naïma Elmcherqui (1943–2024) was an iconic figure of Moroccan cinema, theater, and television. Drawn to the performing arts from an early age and encouraged by family and friends, she made her passion her profession.
The 1960s and 1970s saw her become a household name through collaborations with Tayeb Seddiki and performances with renowned theater troupes, among them Al Maâmora and Moroccan state radio. She went on to be seen on the big screen in films including Souheil Ben Barka’s Noces de sang (Blood Wedding, (1977), Moumen Smihi’s 44 ou les récits de la nuit (forty-four, or bedtime stories, Forty-Four, or Bedtime Stories (1981), and Mostafa Derkaoui’s Les Beaux jours de Sheherazade (The Beautiful Days of Sheherazade 1982). In 1989, Badis, a landmark of Moroccan cinema, marked her first collaboration with Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi, with whom she made three more films : À la recherche du mari de ma femme (In Search of My Wife’s Husband, (1992) and its sequel, Lalla Hobby (1996), both of which met with popular acclaim, and Les Voisines d’Abou Moussa (2003), a historical film in which she had a memorable turn as a queen. In 1993, Elmcherqui worked for the first time for the celebrated Cinecittà Studios when she took the lead role in Maurizio Zaccaro’s Article 2. In 2006, Franco-Moroccan actor and director Roschdy Zem cast her as his mother in his first feature-length film, the French box-office hit Mauvaise foi (Bad Faith). Her final role for the cinema came in 2020 in Mohamed Mouftakir’s The Fall of Apple Trees, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Malmö Arab Film Festival in Sweden—twenty years after she had been named Best Actress for her performance in À la recherche du mari de ma femme (In Search of My Wife’s Husband) at the National Film Festival in Tangier. In parallel with her film roles, Elmcherqui was a key figure on Moroccan television, appearing in numerous TV movies and soap operas that confirmed her immense popularity.
Deeply compassionate, Elmcherqui committed herself to supporting numerous charitable and humanitarian causes. In particular, as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for many years, she distinguished herself defending the rights of children.