Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s drama Happy Holidays has clinched the Étoile d’Or for Greatest Movie on the Marrakech Movie Competition.
The Jury Prize was awarded ex aequo to Argentinian director Silvina Schnicer’s The Cottage and Somali and Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise. Damian Kocur received the Greatest Directing Prize for his drama Beneath the Volcano, which is Poland’s Oscar entry this year.
The prize for Greatest Efficiency by an Actress was shared by Wafaa Aoun and Manar Shehab for his or her performances in Completely satisfied Holidays, whereas Roman Lutskyi received the award for Greatest Efficiency by an Actor for his work in Beneath the Volcano.
Completely satisfied Holidays is a up to date Haifa-set drama wherein a minor automobile accident units off a sequence of occasions, unraveling lies and unstated truths that sow division inside a multifaceted patriarchal society.
The movie world premiered within the Venice Movie Competition’s Horizons sidebar this 12 months, successful Greatest Screenplay. It has additionally since received the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, whereas German producer Dorothe Beinemeier, received the producers award for the co-production on the Hamburg Movie Competition.
This 12 months’s star-studded jury was presided over by Luca Guadagnino and likewise featured Iranian director Ali Abbasi, Indian director Zoya Akhtar, US actor Patricia Arquette, Belgian actor Virginie Efira, Australian actor Jacob Elordi, British-US actor Andrew Garfield, Moroccan actor Nadia Kounda, and Argentinian director Santiago Mitre.
The pageant’s twenty first version – working from November 29 to December 7 – was attended by a report 40,000 spectators, together with 7,500 kids and youngsters as a part of the Younger Audiences and Households program.
Different highlights of the pageant included tributes to Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and late Moroccan actress Naïma Elmcherqui, who died simply weeks earlier than this 12 months’s version.
Penn delivered was characteristically outspoken as he acquired his award on the opening weekend, calling on the cinema world to ditch political correctness, saying: “I encourage everybody to be politically incorrect, to embrace variety, and to maintain telling tales.”
Past the jury and honorees a raft of A-list expertise attended this 12 months’s version to take part in dialog occasions: together with Tim Burton; Alfonso Cuarón, Ava DuVernay, Todd Haynes; Justin Kurzel, whose new movie, The Order, opened the pageant; Mohammad Rasoulof; Walter Salles and Justine Triet amongst others.
Working alongside the pageant, the seventh version of its trade strand, the Atlas Workshops, was attended by 340 worldwide professionals, who mentioned 27 movie tasks in growth or manufacturing.
In an indication of the assembly’s rising legacy, 12 accomplished options supported by the initiative had been chosen for the Marrakech movie program this 12 months, together with Harawe’s Jury Prize winner, The Village Subsequent to Paradise.
Among the many company on the Atlas Workshops this 12 months was U.S. director Jeff Nichols as its 2024 patron and lead mentor, in a job that noticed him give particular person suggestions to the in-development tasks.
Speaking to Deadline, shortly after touching down in Marrakech for the occasion, Nichols revealed that he had been writing the screenplay for a new original feature on the flight from the U.S.
The workshops meted out forged 9 prizes, cut up between tasks growth and in post-production.
The highest €25,000 Atlas Prize for Put up-Manufacturing went to Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Egypt), adopted by the €20,000 prize for Chronicles from the Siege by Abdallah Al Khatib (Palestine), after which €10,000 award for It’s A Unhappy And Stunning World by Cyril Aris (Lebanon), and €5,000 for Bardi by Tala Hadid (Morocco),
The jury comprised gross sales agent Grégoire Melin (Kinology), Locarno Movie Competition Creative Director Giona Nazzaro and Malika Rabahallah, Director of Filmfest Hamburg.
The highest €30,000 Atlas Prize for Growth went to Princesse Téné by Fabien Dao (Burkina Faso), adopted by €20,000 for Fortunate Woman by Linda Lô (Senegal) and €5,000 every for Samir, The Unintentional Spy by Charlotte Rabate (Syria) and Ici Repose by Moly Kane (Senegal)
The jury for the 4 Atlas Growth prizes comprised filmmaker Yasmine Benkiran and producers Dora Bouchoucha and Philippe Bober.
In a ultimate prize, the ArteKino Worldwide Prize, awarded by the Franco-German channel Arte, was granted to Alicante, by Lina Soualem (Algeria).
Over the course of its seventh editions, the Atlas Workshops platform has supported 152 tasks and movies, together with 60 from Morocco.
