The 21st Marrakech International Film Festival concluded on December 7th, 2024, with the Palestinian film Happy Holidays winning the prestigious Étoile d’Or, along with twin Best Actress awards for Wafaa Aoun and Manar Shehab. Directed by Scandar Copti, Happy Holidays is a Haifa-set drama about a minor car accident that unravels societal divisions.
The Jury Prize was shared between The Cottage (Argentina) and The Village Next to Paradise (Somalia), while Damian Kocur earned the Best Director award for Under the Volcano (Poland). Roman Lutskyi received the Best Actor award for Under the Volcano.
The festival, held from December 1st to 7th, attracted a record 40,000 attendees, including 7,500 children. Among the highlights were tributes to Moroccan cinema legend Naïma Elmcherqui and iconic figures such as Sean Penn and David Cronenberg.
Sean Penn, who received the Étoile d’Or, delivered a poignant speech urging political engagement in art. Cronenberg, honored for his cinematic legacy, reflected on his career’s impact.
The event also hosted 18 influential industry figures, including Tim Burton, Alfonso Cuarón, Ava DuVernay, and Justin Kurzel. The Festival screened 71 films from 32 countries, with 12 supported by the Atlas Workshops, which also celebrated its seventh edition with 340 international professionals and 27 film projects. New initiatives like the Atlas Station program supported young Moroccan filmmakers.
In its commitment to social causes, the Festival launched a campaign to combat blindness, providing medical services to disaster-affected populations in Tahanaout, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Hassan II Foundation for Ophthalmology.
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