The Marrakech International Film Festival opened on Friday evening after two years of absence due to the health crisis, the occasion “to try to understand where the cinema is going”pleaded its president the Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino.
“After three complicated years where the world seemed different, where our way of life changed, it’s reassuring and beautiful to find ourselves here”said the Neapolitan Oscar winner for The Great Bellezza (2013). These cinematographic reunions are an opportunity “to try to understand where the cinema is going and in fact where life is going”underlined the president of the jury.
A quest that makes sense at the FIFM, the festival favoring “the young talents who will shape the cinema of tomorrow”.
For this 19th edition, fourteen feature films, including six signed by female directors, from Mexico to Portugal via Iran, in the running for the Gold Star, the supreme award in Marrakech. They will be decided by an international jury including French actor Tahar Rahim, Lebanese director Nadine Labaki and German-American actress Diane Kruger.
Danish director Susanne Bier and American actor Oscar Isaac, two announced jury members, were absent from the opening ceremony due to “painful circumstances”said the presenter of the evening.
A vibrant tribute was paid to Indian actor Ranveer Singh, Bollywood star. Other tributes will include American director James Gray and multifaceted Scottish actress Tilda Swinton, who headed the festival’s jury in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
For its big return, the festival is distinguished by a wide range of guests as part of its famous “conversations” with in particular the Iranian master of suspense Asghar Farhadi, twice Oscar winner (A separation in 2011 and The Customer in 2016) or even Jim Jarmusch, the darling of American independent cinema.
Festival-goers will take over emblematic places in the Red City for eight days (November 11 to 19) such as the Jamaa el Fna square where films honoring science fiction will be screened outdoors with recent Dunes (2021) by Denis Villeneuve or Ad Astra (2019) by James Gray.
On the sidelines of the festivities, the FIFM has been organizing, since 2018, the “Ateliers de l’Atlas”, a support program for young filmmakers from Africa and the Middle East with projects in development and films in post-production.