Justin Kurzel’s political thriller The Order, featuring Jude Law, will kick off the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, with the director and producer Stuart Ford in attendance later this month.

This film is among seven that will be highlighted as gala screenings at the Moroccan festival, which announced its program on Thursday.

The gala lineup also includes three contenders for the Best International Feature Film Oscar: Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco), Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Brazil), and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), all set to be screened with their directors present.

Related Stories

Sean Penn, David Cronenberg & Naïma Elmcherqui Set For Marrakech Honors

Jeff Nichols To Mentor Emerging Arab & African Directors At Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops + Project Line-Up

The festival plans to showcase 70 feature films from 32 nations, covering categories like Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, alongside films from the Tributes program.

Among the 14 first and second films in competition is Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s Across the Sea, which tells the story of a young Moroccan man striving to build a life in Marseille; it premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week. Other entries include Venice Horizons selection Happyend by Neo Sora and Polish Oscar submission Under The Volcano by Damian Kocur.

Several contenders for Marrakech’s Étoile d’Or have received support from the festival’s Atlas Workshops during their development or post-production phases, such as Mo Harawe’s The Village Next To Paradise, which debuted at Cannes, and Hind Meddeb’s Sudan, Remember Us.

As previously announced, this year’s jury will be led by Thomas Vinterberg, with jury members to be revealed later.

Special Screenings will feature films that have garnered attention on the international festival circuit, including Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Edward Berger’s Conclave, Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, and the UK’s Oscar entry On Becoming A Guinea Fowl by Rungano Nyoni.

International premieres will include Baya Kasmi’s charming comedy Mikado and Karim Moussaoui’s The Vanishing, noted for its compelling narrative on the transmission of values across generations.

A restored version of the 1988 film The Camp at Thiaroye will be screened to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the mass killing of French West African troops by French forces on the night of November 30 to December 1, 1944, following protests over inadequate living conditions and unpaid wages.

Three documentaries round out the selection: Petra Costa’s Apocalypse in the Tropics, Ayman El Amir’s The Brink of Dreams, and Myriam El Hajj’s Diaries from Lebanon. The 11th Continent program will present 13 innovative fiction and documentary films, including Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour and Kamal Aljafari’s A Fidai Film. The Panorama of Moroccan Cinema will showcase five films by Moroccan directors, three of which are world or international premieres: Simone Bitton’s The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond, Abdeslam Kelai’s Nocturnal Sonata, and Jawad Rhalib’s Since I Was Born. This year, Moroccan cinema is notably highlighted with a total of 12 films across various sections of the festival.

The program will also feature films honoring the late Moroccan actress Naïma Elmcherqui, Canadian director David Cronenberg, and U.S. actor-director Sean Penn, who are being celebrated for their careers this year.

The festival is scheduled to run from November 29 to December 7.

The 2024 line-up

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

ACROSS THE SEA

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

BOUND IN HEAVEN

by Huo Xin / China

THE COTTAGE

by Silvina Schnicer / Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Chile

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

by Scandar Copti / Palestine, Germany, France, Italy, Qatar

HAPPYEND

by Neo Sora / Japan, USA

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE

by Laura Piani / France

MA—CRY OF SILENCE

by The Maw Naing / Myanmar, Singapore, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar

ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN HEMME DIES

by Murat Fıratoğlu / Turkey

PERFUMED WITH MINT

by Muhammed Hamdy / Egypt, Qatar, Tunisia, France

SILENT STORMS (LES TEMPÊTES)

by Dania Reymond-Boughenou / France, Belgium

SUDAN, REMEMBER US

by Hind Meddeb / France, Tunisia, Qatar – Documentary

UNDER THE VOLCANO

by Damian Kocur / Poland

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE

by Mo Harawe / Austria, France, Germany, Somalia

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT

by Gabrielle Brady / Australia, Mongolia, Germany – Documentary

GALA

Opening film

THE ORDER

by Justin Kurzel / Canada

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA

by Nabil Ayouch / France, Morocco, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway

FOURTH WALL

by David Oelhoffen / France, Luxembourg, Belgium

I’M STILL HERE

by Walter Salles / Brazil, France

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG

by Mohammad Rasoulof / Germany, France, Iran

THE SHROUDS

by David Cronenberg / France, Canada

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

by Payal Kapadia / France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS

by Petra Costa / Brazil – Documentary

BIRD

by Andrea Arnold / UK
with Nykiya Adams, Franz Rogowski, Barry Keoghan, Jason Buda, Jasmine Jobson, Frankie Box

THE BRINK OF DREAMS

by Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir / Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – Documentary

THE CAMP AT THIAROYE

by Ousmane Sembène, Thierno Faty Sow / Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia – 1988 – Restored version

CONCLAVE

by Edward Berger / USA, UK

DIARIES FROM LEBANON

by Myriam El Hajj / Lebanon, France, Qatar – Documentary

FANON

by Jean-Claude Barny / France, Luxembourg, Canada
with Alexandre Bouyer, Déborah François, Stanislas Merhar, Mehdi Senoussi, Olivier

KILL THE JOCKEY

by Luis Ortega / Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, USA

MIKADO

by Baya Kasmi / France
with Félix Moati, Ramzy Bedia, Vimala Pons

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

by Rungano Nyoni / Zambia, UK

STRANGER EYES

by Yeo Siew Hua / Singapore, Taiwan, France, USA

TO A LAND UNKNOWN

by Mahdi Fleifel / UK, Palestine, France, Greece, Netherlands, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

THE VANISHING

by Karim Moussaoui / France, Germany, Tunisia

WHO DO I BELONG TO

by Meryam Joobeur / Tunisia, France, Canada

11th CONTINENT

A FIDAI FILM

by Kamal Aljafari / Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France – Documentary

CABO NEGRO

by Abdellah Taïa / France, Morocco

THE DAMNED

by Roberto Minervini / Italy, USA, Belgium

GRAND TOUR

by Miguel Gomes / Portugal, Italy, France

GREEN LINE

by Sylvie Ballyot / France, Lebanon, Qatar – Documentary

HIGHER THAN ACIDIC CLOUDS

by Ali Asgari / Iran, Luxembourg – Documentary

NATIONALITY: IMMIGRANT

by Sidney Sokhona / France – 1975 – Restored version – Documentary

THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER

by Inadelso Cossa / Mozambique, France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway – Documentary

NO SLEEP TILL

by Alexandra Simpson / USA, Switzerland

RISING UP AT NIGHT

by Nelson Makengo / Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar – Documentary

ROCK BOTTOM

by María Trénor / Spain, Poland
with Fermi Herrero, Laura Casana

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

by Matthew Rankin / Canada

WISHING ON A STAR

by Péter Kerekes / Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia – Documentary

MOROCCAN PANORAMA

(Y)OUR MOTHER

by Samira El Mouzghibati / Belgium, France – Documentary

THE BLUE LAKE

by Daoud Aoulad-Syad / Morocco, Salem Daballa, Ranya Chani

NOCTURNAL SONATA

by Abdeslam Kelaï / Morocco

SINCE I WAS BORN

by Jawad Rhalib / Morocco, Belgium

THE THOUSAND AND ONE DAYS OF HAJJ EDMOND

by Simone Bitton / Morocco, France – Documentary

CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES & FAMILIES

DOUNIA, THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

by Marya Zarif, André Kadi / Canada

FLOW

by Gints Zilbalodis / Latvia, France, Belgium

L’BATAL

by Omar Lotfi / Morocco

SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS

by Benoît Chieux / France, Belgium

SOMETIMES HAPPINESS, SOMETIMES SORROW

by Karan Johar / India

THREE ROBBERS AND A LION

by Rasmus A. Sivertsen / Norway

Person: Justin Kurzel, Jude Law, Stuart Ford, Nabil Ayouch, Walter Salles, Mohammad Rasoulof, Sean Penn, David Cronenberg, Naïma Elmcherqui, Jeff Nichols, Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, Neo Sora, Damian Kocur, Mo Harawe, Hind Meddeb, Thomas Vinterberg, Andrea Arnold, Payal Kapadia, Rungano Nyoni, Baya Kasmi, Karim Moussaoui, Myriam El Hajj, Ousmane Sembène, Thierno Faty Sow, Alexandre Bouyer, Déborah François, Stanislas Merhar, Mehdi Senoussi, Luis Ortega, Kamal Aljafari, Abdellah Taïa, Miguel Gomes, Ali Asgari, Sidney Sokhona, Inadelso Cossa, Nelson Makengo, Marya Zarif, André Kadi, Omar Lotfi, Karan Johar.

Company Names:

Titles: The Order, Everybody Loves Touda, I’m Still Here, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Across the Sea, Happyend, Under The Volcano, The Village Next To Paradise, Sudan, Remember Us, Bird, All We Imagine As Light, Mikado, The Vanishing, The Camp at Thiaroye, Apocalypse in the Tropics, The Brink of Dreams, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, The Thousand and One Days of Hajj Edmond, Nocturnal Sonata, Since I Was Born, Happy Holidays, CONCLAVE, The Ties That Bind Us, THE DAMNED, Grand Tour, FLOW, L’BATAL, SIROCCO AND THE KINGDOM OF THE WINDS, THREE ROBBERS AND A LION.

Disclaimer: This article has been auto-generated from a syndicated RSS feed and has not been edited by Vitrina staff. It is provided solely for informational purposes on a non-commercial basis.