From November 29-December 7, 2019 Marrakech, will be the host city for the 18th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM). This year’s jury president is Tilda Swinton, a multi-award winning Scottish performer and producer. “It is my honor to serve the exceptional festival of Marrakech as president of the Jury this year. The State of Cinema knows no boundary and the prospect of joining with my comrades from around our planet to discover and celebrate work from all her continents is a privilege.”
The iconic Swinton won the Best Actress Award at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival for Edward II. The film was one of seven that she made with director Derek Jarman. From the time she appeared in her first film Caravaggio (1985), Swinton has mesmerized audiences with her ability to undergo complete character metamorphosis’. To date, she has appeared in seventy feature films and has made film collaborations with Jim Jarmusch in Only Lovers Left Alive and The Dead Don’t Die (Joel and Ethan Coen), We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay) and I Am Love, A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino). More recently, she has worked with Bong Joon Ho on his international hits Snowpiercer and Marvel Studios’ blockbuster Doctor Strange.
Morocco’s FIFM festival was first organized in 2001 by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. It aims to encourage diversity, promote cross-cultural conversations, and to gather national and international actors, producers, filmmakers, and directors. The festival will include a film competition. Moroccan-Swiss Director Mohcine Besri’s Urgent has been nominated to represent Morocco. The film tells the story of two patients, a young boy suffering from severe headaches and a depressed older man. Their fates intertwine at the Casablanca hospital when they are both placed under the care of Tariq, an overworked physician who left a good career in Canada. The film explores the topic of individual and collective responsibility.
Additional programming for FIFM will include tributes, masterclasses, a Moroccan Panorama of cinema, and audio description films for the visually impaired. Classes and projections will take place in and around the main square of Jemaa El Fna, located in the Marrakech’s UNESCO recognized medina.