Marrakesh hosts its first international cinema festival in september
Morocco-Regional, Culture, 3/9/2001

The city of Marrakesh will be hosting its first international cinema festival next September 28 through October 2.

Held under the aegis of King Mohammed VI, the festival features some fifty movies, most of them to be screened for the first time and for free. The festival jury will be chaired by French actress Sophie Marceau.

Members of the organizing committee explained at a news conference in Casablanca Thursday that the festival is aimed at opening cinema access to all and at showing the world cultural diversity.

Advisor to King Mohammed VI and member of the organizing committee, Andre Azoulay, said the Marrakesh first cinema festival will be a forum of reflection and exchange that will stimulate further the renaissance and professionalism of Moroccan cinema as well as its cultural, economic and social dimension.

Azoulay insisted on the economic dimension of the cinema industry on which thousands of people live. He mentioned as an instance the Moroccan southern region of Ouarzazat, which has become a center for the international cinema industry. Since the mid nineties, about one thousand films and ad spots are shot in Morocco every year and the turnover that did not exceed $ 50 million now nears $200 million, making of the sector one of the development engines in the country, Azoulay said.

"We want the Marrakesh event to be a cultural and popular festival accessible to all with the universal dimension that falls in the frame of north-south cooperation," said French cinema critic and chairman of the executive committee of the festival Daniel Toscan du Plantier.

Daniel Toscan du Plantier who described the festival as a Moroccan event that is world-oriented underlined the kingdom's cultural diversity and said the organizers want the festival to be a cultural but also a popular event

Sophie Marceau who was also present at the news conference said the festival reflects the symbiosis existing between King Mohammed VI and young Moroccans who form the majority of the population and the majority of cinema goers. The festival will enable Moroccans to appreciate the diversity of the motion picture, she said.

The festival program features three chapters: films in official competition (about ten international movies), films of the world, screening movies from all over the world and especially from India, the Middle East, the Maghreb and Africa, and discovery films that explore new ways in the cinema.

The festival, that also features forums, debates and colloquies, will award a Grand Prize, a jury's special prize, and prizes for the best actress and actor.

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