After ten days of cinematic galore, the Marrakech Film Festival (MFF) finally drew its curtains closed on what will be remembered as a dazzling 22nd edition. Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 6, Morocco’s south welcomed an international constellation of stars, including directors, actors, and industry insiders.
The event opened with the premiere screening of Dead Man Wire, the latest feature by American filmmaker Gus Van Sant — an inaugural statement that made the edition’s intentions clear from its very first night, positioning the Kingdom’s former capital as a place where cinema operates as the dominant, almost singular, language.
As the festival just wrapped up, below, we compiled a non-exhaustive list of defining moments to look back on for those that missed out.
A canopy of international and regional stars came through…
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This year, some of the globe’s most esteemed and respected figures strutted down MFF’s red carpet—from Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega to Parasite’s Bong Joon Ho (who served as this year’s jury president), and Moulay Rachid, King Mohammed VI’s younger brother. Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, Moroccan rising star Nabila Kilani, and César-winning Algerian actor Tahar Rahim were also in attendance.
…Not simply as tourists but also as jury members
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Though a fleet of A-listers touched down at MFF dressed to the nines, many weren’t there just to pose, but there to also judge. This year’s panel of juries included Joon Ho as president, along with Ortega, Taylor-Joy, Celine Song, Titane Palme d’Or lauréate Julia Ducournau, Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz, Moroccan filmmaker Hakim Belabbes, and Iranian-American actor-director Payman Maadi.
The star-studded council was entrusted with the appraisal of 14 competition titles as well as their respective merits.
Speaking of merit, ‘Promised Sky’ won top honor this year
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Having opened Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section earlier this year, Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri’s latest project turns its lens on social marginalization through the lives of three Ivorian migrants in Tunis. Intimate and inherently important to address, the film confronts displacement, precarity, as well as the fractures of belonging.
“As a Tunisian woman myself, I am deeply frustrated that we are unable to welcome migrants with dignity, despite being a nation defined by its own vast diaspora,” Sehiri said. “We behave as though we do not share the same continent— as though we are not all African.”
A dedicated tribute put Moroccan actress Raouia in the spotlight
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Half-way through the festival, the program paused to pay tribute to Moroccan actress Fatima Harandi, better known as Raouia to the masses. With a career spanning decades across cinema, theatre and television, MFF presented the 74-year-old with a lifetime award in recognition of a body of work that shaped Morocco’s popular culture across generations.
Jodie Foster too
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In Marrakech to present her latest film, A Private Life, multi-award-winning actress Jodie Foster was also put under the spotlight with a tribute at the festival’s 22nd edition. Ahead of the ceremony, a recorded message from Martin Scorsese — who directed her in Taxi Driver — was screened in her honor.
“I want to congratulate you on this recognition tonight in Marrakech. I only wish I could be there,” Scorsese said. “You are such an important part of my work and my career. There’s been a joy in your performances since before you could walk, really. I’ll never forget the day you walked into my office at eight or nine years old and had more pull than anyone else in the studio at the time,” he added.
Controversial Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar made her silver-screen return
After years of sidelining—following her appearance in Nabil Ayouch’s incendiary Much Loved, which was banned in Morocco at the time—Loubna Abidar is making her way back to Moroccan screens. In a recent interview on MFF’s red carpet, she reflected on the moment with emotion:
“It’s deeply moving to return,” she told Moroccan monthly publication Femmes Du Maroc. “I’ve worked with international directors and built so much of my journey outside Morocco. And now, to come back and be welcomed with such open arms—it makes me truly happy.”
There to present her upcoming film, Autisto, Abidar spoke candidly about the project’s emotional weight. “The story is very difficult,” she said. “It follows a single mother raising a child with autism and traces her suffering between love and rejection, between tenderness and exhaustion, in a life that can be harsh and unforgiving at times.”
