Martin I. Petrov

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The 14th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival (5 - 13 December 2014) just unveiled its line-up and juries, surpassing even last year’s galore of big names in the industry that attended the Moroccan Film Festival. 

After making known that this year’s tributes will honour Japanese Cinema, Egyptian actor Adel Imam, British actor Jeremy Irons and the American actor Viggo Mortensen. 

The festival stated: “For this year’s edition, the Festival will welcome a major delegation of actors, directors and producers, and will also put the spotlight on some of the masters from the history of filmmaking in Japan: from Yasujiro Ozu to Kore-Eda Hirokazu, through Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Takeshi Kitano, Hayao Miyazaki, Shinji Aoyama, Naomi Kawaze, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Mamoru Oshii, Takashi Miike and Masaki Kobayashi. And continuing on this year’s tributes to three widely renowned actors: “After the tributes paid in 2013 to Juliette Binoche, Mohamed Khouyi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sharon Stone and Fernando Solanas, the Festival continues to bring the spotlight on some of the great names of international cinema, and will this year pay tribute to the Egyptian actor Adel Imam, the British actor Jeremy Irons, and the American actor Viggo Mortensen.” 

After announcing that the jury this year will be led by French actress Isabelle Huppert, MIFF revealed the rest powerful names that will stand beside her this year, including Indian Director Ritesh Batra (Lunchbox), Danish director Susanne Bier, French Director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent), French actress Melanie Laurent, Italian director Mario Martone (Il Giovane favoloso), Romanian director Christian Mungiu, British actor Alan Rickman and Moroccan director Moumen Smihi. Yes, ALL these! 

The films in competition that the 14th edition will feature include: 

The blue Elephant, dir. Marwan Hamed - Egypt 

Chigasaki story, dir. Takuya Misawa - Japan 

Chrieg, dir. Simon Jaquemet - Switzerland 

Corrections class, dir. Ivan I. Tverdovsky - Russia/ Germany 

Everything we love, dir. Max Currie - New Zealand 

The keeping room, dir. Daniel Barber - US 

Labour of love, dir. Aditya Vikram Sengupta - India 

The last hammer blow, dir. Alex Delaporte - France 

Mirage, dir. Sczabolcs Hajdu - Hungary/ Slovakia 

Nabat, dir. Elchin Musaoglu - Azerbaijan 

No one’s child, dir. Vuk Ršumović - Serbia 

L’ orchestre des aveugles, dir. Mohamed Mouftakir - Morocco/ France 

Red rose, dir. Sepideh Farsi - France/ Greece/ Iran 

The sea fog, dir. Shim Sung-bo - South Korea 

Things people do, dir. Saar Klein - US 

In Le cinécoles section, where the jury consists from Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, American director Zoe Cassavetes, French actress Ana Girardot, Moroccan director Driss Roukhe, French. Italian & Egyptian actress Elisa Sednaoui and French actor Gaspard Ulliel, the films competing are: 

1920 by Yassine Gaamer 

Dalto by Essam Doukhou 

Dolls by Mohammed Oudghiri 

En dehors de la ville by Rim Mejdi 

Fabulari by Dalal Tantaoui Al-Araqui 

Goodbye Cinéma by Madane El Ghazouani 

Layla by Ahmed Messoudi 

Shoes by Meryem Benheddi 

Le souffle de la vie by Driss Tabaa 

Think before you click by Ayoub Ziane 

Special Screenings out of Competition: 

The theory of everything, dir. James Marsh, UK (Opening Film) 

A most violent year, dir. J.C. Chandor, US (Closing Film) 

Ardor, dir. Pablo Fendrik, Argentina/ Mexico/ Brazil/ France & US 

Far from men, dir. David Oelhoffsen, France 

Happy New Year, dir. Farah Khan, India 

The imitation game, dir. Morten Tyldum, US 

May Allah bless France, dir. Abd Al Malik, France 

Silent heart, dir. Bille August, Denmark 

The silent storm, dir. Corinna McFarlane, UK 

Timbuktu, dir. Abderrahmane Sissako, France/ Mauritania 

Atlantic., dir. Jan-Willem Van Ewijk, The Netherlands/ Belgium/ Germany & Morocco 

Bollywood Dream, dir. Yassine Fennane, Morocco 

Half the sky, dir. Abdelkader Lagtaâ, France/ Morocco 

Hope, dir. Boris Lojkine, France 

The narrow frame of midnight, dir. Itar El-Layl, Morocco/ UK/ France & Qatar 

Un pari pimenté, dir. Mohamed Karrat, Morocco 

The festival will also hold tributes on Moroccan producers Khadija Alami and Zakaria Alaoui. 

Danish director Bille August, French director Benoit Jacquot and Spanish director Alex De La Iglesia are going to give filmmaking masterclasses.