Marrakech Builds Bridges From Atlas to Oscars

The thinnest show of last year Marrakech Film Festival happened off site.

The chairman of the jury arrived in Morocco with a rough cut of his latest film, which, as luck would have it, starred another jury member. After a day of screenings and discussions—and months before the world premiere of the finished version—Luca Guadagnino invited Andrew Garfield to a low-key screening of After the Hunt at a hotel.

This year, this club informality is taking center stage. Longtime festival president Melita Toscan du Plantier (who is also a producer) once again assembled a powerful jury, chaired by Bong Joon Ho, the Oscar-winning director of Parasite, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Jenna OrtegaCeline Song, Julia Ducournau, Karim Ainouz, Hakim Belabbes and Payman Maadi. Over the course of a week starting this weekend, they will discover 13 films by emerging Moroccan directors participating in the competition.

“We tried to position the festival as a bridge between leading figures in world cinema and emerging talent,” says the artistic director. Remy Bonhomme. “Marrakech is the gateway between Europe and Africa, which allows us to work both internationally and regionally. At the same time, being at the end of the year, we are right in the middle of the Oscar race. We want to occupy this strategic position both geographically and calendar-wise.”

This year's program features many international feature Oscar contenders, including Palestine 36, Calle Malaga, The President's Cake, The Poet and No Other Choice, as well as gala screenings of Frankenstein and Hamnet, as well as conversations with Jafar Panahi, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Jodie Foster and AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer. which leaves a mark on awards season. unmistakable.

For Bonhomme, however, this new focus simply brings to the fore what was already there.

“Guests want to be here,” he explains. “They value the opportunity to meet each other in a relaxed atmosphere. Unlike Cannes or Venice, where everyone bumps into each other without real time to socialize, Marrakesh allows for genuine exchanges. And since the Academy has opened up significantly to diversity, many of the Arab and African directors and producers we invite are now also members of the Academy.”

But Marrakech is more than just a picturesque version of the FYC show, replacing the Hollywood Hills with the Atlas Mountains. Bonhomme also wants to use this proximity to integrate aspiring filmmakers into the global network.

“I wanted the festival to be a place where international figures genuinely engage with the region,” he says. “Because these conversations have never been more important.”

He points to Andrew Garfield, who continued to promote last year's “Happy Holidays” by Skandar Kopti long after the festival ended. He singles out 2022 jury member Vanessa Kirby, who was so moved by Carmen Jacquier's Oscar winner Thunder that she signed on as an executive producer, helped the film make Switzerland's official Oscar bid and went on to work on the director's next feature.

And he speaks with particular pride of 2023 jury president Jessica Chastain.

“After the closing ceremony, Chastain and her producing partner met with all the competing directors and promised to keep an eye on their projects,” says Bonhomme. “She even told me that she thought the line-up was stronger than the competition she judged at Cannes, and I admit I was very happy to hear that.”

Bonhomme believes that trend will continue with new jury chairman Bong Joon-ho, who awarded the Golden Lion at Venice to “The Happening” and then included its lead, Anamaria Bartolomei, in his next project.

This year's four competing projects were developed as part of the festival's incubator, Atlas Workshops, although Bonhomme stresses that participation in the program does not guarantee selection. But he takes particular pleasure in following projects from their earliest stages to premiere and beyond.

Building on this holistic view and his previous work as head of the Cannes Critics' Week sidebar, Bonhomme strategically positions Marrakesh within the broader festival circuit. Namely, the fact that Copti's Happy Holidays and Asmae El Mudir's The Mother of All Lies were both up for Marrakesh's top prize after previous recognition from Venice's Horizons and Cannes' Un Certain Regard is no coincidence.

“The market for first and second films is difficult,” he explains. “Even if you're playing a sidebar in San Sebastian, Locarno or Venice, it's difficult to get the exposure you need for a first film. Sales agents are increasingly targeting two or three key festivals to launch a film, rather than relying on just one. We're shaping Marrakech as one of these important stops, positioning films for complementary exposure.”

The Atlas ecosystem, which includes development, marketing, distribution and press initiatives under the Atlas program banner, was central to this strategy. This year the festival features Atlas Distribution Meetings, bringing together 60 distribution professionals from the Arab world, Africa and Europe.

While this influx of buyers is not a traditional market, it has had a knock-on effect on programming, helping Marrakesh secure world premieres such as Marwan Hamed's El Sete, Meryem Benm'Barek's Beyond the Palms and the international debut of Australian feature First Light.

Looking to the future, Bonhomme aims to further expand its reach by inviting mega-watt stars, sales and distribution veterans, award contenders and emerging creators to mingle in the same picturesque setting – thereby creating “another tool within the festival ecosystem that can have real international impact.”

“We are at a moment where it is important that international and regional films are discovered not only in Europe but also on the African continent,” he says. “Arab and African filmmakers still rely heavily on European funding and festivals, but their home audiences are growing. Marrakech can provide a platform for these films to launch internationally while remaining rooted in their region. That is my goal for the future.”