Moroccan cinema to hold a pride of place at Cannes Festival

Moroccan cinema will hold a pride of place at the Cannes Festival on May 14 in the Moroccan cinema day.

Under the theme "All World Cinema," the Cannes Festival will dedicate a special day to Morocco along with seven other countries.

Besides seven Moroccan short feature-length movies, the festival will screen three long feature-length movies: "Badis" of Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi, "Mémoire en detention" of Jilali Ferhati and "l'enfant endormi" of Yasmina Kassari.

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals, and was first held from September 20 through October 5, 1946 in the resort town of Cannes, south of France. Since then, it has been held annually in May with a few exceptions.

The festival is attended by world movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers from all over the globe. The most prestigious award given out at Cannes is the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for the best film.

The 2005 Cannes Film Festival will run May 11-22. Twenty movies from 13 countries have been selected to compete. The awards will be announced May 21.