Bye Bye Tiberias director Lina Soualem is among the filmmakers selected for the seventh edition of the expanded Atlas Workshops, the industry platform and talent incubator for Arab and African filmmakers of the 2024 Marrakech International Film Festival, for which US director Jeff Nichols will be this year’s mentor.
Soualem is taking part with her first fiction feature Alicante, along with filmmakers include French-Moroccan actor turned director Djanis Bouzyani with his documentary And Still I Rise and Mouloud Ouyahia with the follow-up to his Cannes 2023 Directors’ Fortnight short The House is On Fire, Might as Well Get Warm with his first feature The Source.
Of the 17 projects in development, 15 of are first features. There are also 10 films in production or post-production from 13 countries from across the MENA region.
Scroll down for the full list
The participants will receive tailor-made support for all stages of production from script to distribution, editing, marketing and music, as well as participating in a co-production market with industry professionals. Several cash prizes for development, post-production distribution selected by juries are awarded throughout the event.
The five-day Atlas Workshops will run from December 1-5, one day longer than previous editions. Initiatives will include Atlas Station programme for 10 Moroccan talents that will feature one-to-one consultations with industry professionals and crossover with other Atlas Workshops events.
The Atlas Distribution Awards, launched last year to support MENA-made films presented at the festival with financial incentives for regional distributors, will return and also include a day of discussions and exchanges.
The showcase will also unveil the first images of Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Laundry and Meryem Benm’Barek’s Behind the Palm Trees, which were selected for the platform at development stage in 2018 and 2022 respectively. The programme will also include first looks at images from Cherien Dabis’s Palestinian film All That’s Left Of You, Marwan Hamed’s El Sett, a biopic of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, and Tarzan and Arab Nasser’s Once Upon A Time in Gaza.
Nichols, whose films include The Bikeriders. Take Shelter, Mud and Loving, will participate in a series of sessions and this year’s roster of selected filmmakers will be known as “the Class of Jeff Nichols”, according to festival organisers. ”Interacting with other filmmakers is always an inspiration to me,” added Nichols. ” I hope my involvement helps them on their path to getting their films out into the world.”
The 21st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival runs November 29 to December 7, 2024.
2024 Atlas Workshops projects and films
Development projects
Alicante dir. Lina Soualem (Algeria)
Flowers of the Dead (Flôr di Finado) dir. Nuno Miranda (Cabo Verde)
Ici Repose dir. Moly Kane (Senegal)
The Last Beast of Atlas dir. Walid Messnaoui (Morocco)
Lucky Girl (Chanceuse) dir. Linda Lô (Senegal)
The Orange Grove dir. Murad Abu Eisheh (Jordan)
Princesse Téné dir. Fabien Dao (Burkina Faso)
Pure Madness (Pure Folie) dir. Inès Arsi (Tunisia)
Samir, The Accidental Spy (Samir, Espion Malgré Lui) dir. Charlotte Rabate (Syria)
The Shelter (Le Refuge) dir. Talal Selhami (Morocco)
The Source (Al Madda) dir. Mouloud Ouyahia (Algeria)
Your Turn, 203 (À Vous, 203) dir. Cynthia Sawma (Lebanon)
Atlas close-ups (Moroccan projects in development)
And Still I Rise (A Balles Perdues, Mon Âme Gagnée) dir. Djanis Bouzyani (Morocco)
Dar Marjana dir. Lamia Lazrak (Morocco)
Fatwa dir. Mohamed El Badaoui (Morocco)
The Field (Le Champ) dir. Mohamed Bouhari (Morocco)
The Nours (Les Frères Nour) – Yassine Iguenfer (Morocco)
Films in production or post-production
Aisha Can’t Fly Away dir. Morad Mostafa (Egypt)
All That’s Left of You dir. Cherien Dabis (Palestine)
Bardi dir. Tala Hadid (Morocco)
Behind the Palm Trees dir. Meryem Benm’barek (Morocco)
Chronicles from the Siege dir. Abdallah Alkhatib (Palestine)
In the Shadows of Good Fortune dir. Babatunde Apalowo (Nigeria)
It’s a Sad and Beautiful World dir. Cyril Aris (Lebanon)
Laundry (Uhlanjululo) dir. Zamo Mkhwanazi (South Africa)
Once Upon a Time in Gaza dir. Tarzan & Arab Nasser (Palestine)
Atlas film showcase (Film in final stages of editing and seeking a festival premiere)
El Sett dir. Marwan Hamed (Egypt)
No comments yet