National Film Festival in Tangier

The 11th Moroccan National Film Festival will be held between 23 and 30 January in Tangier.


This festival became an annual event in 2007 and is held under the auspices of the Moroccan Centre for Cinematography. It's the largest national film festival in the country. As many as fourteen full-length films will be shown, which proves the robust health of the country's film industry. Pioneer film-makers such as Latef Lahlou will present 'La Grande Villa', Abdelkrim Derkaoui his 'Chroniques Blanches', as well as Mohamed Ismail with 'Oulad Lblad'.

This is a great opportunity, too, for new film-makers who are showing what could be their very first full-length feature. In this category is Mohamed Lyounssi with his 'Allo 15'.

The film that wowed Marrakech, 'The Man who sold the World' by the Noury brothers will also be screened.

Heading the panel assessing the feature-length films will be Ivory Coast film-maker Timité Bassoré, accompanied by Nezha Drissi, director of the festival, photographic artist Ytto Berrada who is also director of cinematography at the Rif Cinema in Tanger, Mohamed Dahan, lecturer and cinema critic, Boualem Lahmene of Disney France, Hassan Nraiss, journalist, and Meneme Richa, from the Europa Cinema in Lebanon.

Short films are not forgotten. These will be judged by Martine Zevort of the Ecole Superieure des Arts Visuels in Marrakech, aided by Souad Hossein, head of the cinema project at the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie in Djibouti, along with Mohamed Sekkat, Allal Sahbi and Brahim Akhyate of the same organisation.

For more information, see Centre Cinematographique Marocain.