Marrakech overview Screen File

Source: Screen File

Marrakech International Film Festival

The Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF) has announced its 19th edition will run November 11-19 this year, in a sign of the organisers’ hope that it will return as a physical event following its cancellation in 2020 and 2021.

“Having been postponed for the past two years due to the ongoing pandemic, the next edition of the festival will be held according to a format taking into account the evolution of the health situation in Morocco and in the world,” the festival said in a statement.

The last edition took place in 2019 with Colombian director Nicolás Rincòn Gille’s winning the top Étoile d’Or prize for Valley Of Souls.

In the absence of a physical festival in 2020 and 2021, the third and fourth editions of the festival’s industry-focused Atlas Workshops continued their work online.

If the 2022 edition is able to go ahead as an in-person event, it will mark Rémi Bonhomme’s first physical edition as artistic director since his appointment to the role in February 2020.

The announced MIFF dates are earlier than the December slot of previous editions but reflect the arrival of Saudi’s Red Sea International Film Festival on the Middle East and North Africa festival scene. The RSIFF has already set December 1-10 as the dates for its second edition.

Other festivals in the region to have announced their 2022 dates include Egypt’s El Gouna International Film Festival, which will run October 13-21. Cairo has yet to unveil its dates but will likely dovetail its dates with those of the Red Sea to draw to a close as the latter event kicks off.