New features from Sofia Alaoui and Alaa Eddine Aljem are among the 30 projects selected for Atlas Workshops, the development platform of Morocco’s Marrakech International Film Festival.
The feature projects are divided across three categories: projects in development, films in production or post-production, and Atlas Close-Ups.
Scroll down for the full list of titles
Moroccan filmmaker Alaoui participates in the development lab with second feature The Sleepers. Her feature debut Animalia launched at Sundance in 2023, going on to Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, and BFI London Film Festival. Screen named Alaoui an Arab Star of Tomorrow in 2022.
The Unknown Saint director Aljem is in the production/post-production section with second feature Eldorado, about a group of migrants seeking to reach the eponymous island where everyone lives in peace; only to end up in a factory of the same name making tomato sauce.
Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho will be the patron for the 2026 edition, providing guidance to the selected filmmakers. “Last year, during my Conversation at the festival, I was asked whether I had ever planned to shoot a film in this city,” said Filho. “Serving as the patron of the Atlas Workshops makes me feel as though I’m witnessing, right before my eyes, the birth of new films.”
The 30 projects and films hail from 14 countries, and were selected from 320 entrants of films in development, and 90 in production or post-production.
The Atlas Workshops take place from November 22 to 26, with Marrakech Film Festival running from November 20-28.
Marrakech Atlas Workshops 2026
Projects in development
Algiers Haze (Alg) dir. Sarra Ryma
America Is Behind The Door (Pal) dir. Laila Abbas
Ashes (Mor) dir. Meryem Benm’barek
A Beautiful Land To Die (Sud) dir. Amjad Abu Alala
Chronicles Of An Unannounced Death (Syr) dir. Dyaa Naim
Eko Gongon (Cab) dir. Carlos Yuri Ceuninck
The Highway (Leb) dir. Farah Kassem
A Lover’s Manifesto (Leb) dir. Alfred Tarazi
Safara (Sen) dir. Awa Moctar Gueye
The Sleepers (Mor) dir. Sofia Alaoui
Songs From The City Of The Dead (Egy) dir. Abdelwahab Shawky
Studio Kebe (Sen) dir. Dyana Gaye
Waltz Of The Savages (Mor) dir. Yasmine Benkiran
The Zebra’s Shadow (Rwa) dir. Gael Kamlindi
Films in production or post-production
1986 (Lib) dir. Mouayed Zabtia
Birthday (Leb) dir. Lara Zeidan
Eldorado (Mor) dir. Alaa Eddine Aljem
Fagadaga (Sen) dir. Yoro Mbaye
Faux Bijoux (Leb) dir. Jessy Moussallem
Hamlet From The Slums (Egy) dir. Ahmed Fawzi-Saleh
Mehal Sefari (Eth) dir. Abraham Gezahagne
My Father Killed Bourguiba (Tun) dir. Fatma Riahi
Occupational Hazards (Jor) dir. Bassel Ghandour
Seasons Of The Weary Kind (Rwa) dir. Samuel Ishimwe
Wolfmother (Mor) dir. Ismael El Iraki
Atlas Close-Ups
Amar Made His Dream Come True (Mor) dir. Samira El Mouzghibati
B512, The Man Who Forgot To Die (Mor) dir. Jihane El Bahhar
The Cemetery’s Birds (Mor) dir. Madane El Ghazouani
Like A Sister (Mor) dir. Sonia Terrab
Medina (Mor) dir. Yassine Fennane
Atlas Station participants
Hamza Azeroual
Rita Berrada
Hiba El Abkari
Roaa Idali
Nadia Janati Idrissi
Yassin Karmoudi
Younes Lazrak
Red Zerouali
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