For its 22nd edition, which takes place from November 28th to December 6th, 2025, the Marrakech International Film Festival celebrates world cinema with a selection of 81 films from 31 countries, presented in several sections: the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Horizons section, the 11th Continent, Moroccan Panorama, Young Audiences and Families, and films screened in parallel with Tributes given to film personalities. Nine of these films unspool as world or international premieres, nine have received the support of the Atlas Workshops, the Festival's industry and talent development platform, and fourteen represent their countries in the race for the Academy Awards.
The Official Competition showcases new talent in world cinema with 13 first and second feature films that compete for the Étoile d’or, awarded by a jury headed this year by filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. This year’s selection reveals a current, politically aware cinema that questions the injustices of the world through intimate or historical narratives, and that is characterized by great freedom of tone and remarkable formal audacity.
Presented as a world premiere, Meryem Benm'Barek's Behind the Palm Trees is a tense psychological thriller that examines the class relations and social domination inherited from the colonial past. Australian photographer James J. Robinson presents the international premiere of his First Light, a visually striking moral drama in which a Filipino nun questions her faith in the face of corruption.
Several filmmakers revisit decisive political moments in their countries through semi-autobiographical narrative: Akinola Davies Jr.'s My Father's Shadow follows a father and his sons in Nigeria during the 1993 electoral crisis; and Zamo Mkhwanazi's Laundry recounts the dreams of a young South African man during apartheid.
Two debut feature films—Siyou Tan’s Amoeba and Imran Perretta’s Ish—accurately explore teenage friendship as it faces the challenge of political awakening, respectively in Singapore and suburban London. Three films portray women who demonstrate resistance and reinvent their destinies: Erige Sehiri's Promised Sky, a luminous tale of female solidarity in the face of racism in Tunisia; Ondřej Provazník's Broken Voices, a chilling drama about the abuse of authority; and Morad Mostafa's Aisha Can't Fly Away, a fantasy thriller that follow a Sudanese woman’s quest for freedom in Cairo.
In the deeply moving documentaries Memory and My Father and Qaddafi, directors Vladlena Sandu and Jihane K, respectively, revisit their childhoods in Chechnya and Libya, weaving powerful narratives of families at the crossroads of personal memory and collective history.
Finally, Straight Circle, an incisive satire about the absurdity of conflict, reveals director Oscar Hudson's astonishing visual inventiveness, while Forastera, a luminous summer tale of mourning by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, testifies to the vitality of new voices in contemporary cinema as it combines formal audacity with universal emotion.
Nine Gala Screenings showcase some of the most eagerly awaited international films of the year. This 22nd edition opens with Dead Man's Wire, Gus Van Sant's dark and jubilant comedy, which delivers a brilliant satire on the media and capitalism. Maryam Touzani presents Calle Málaga, a tender and generous portrait of a woman from the Spanish community in Tangier, beautifully interpreted by Carmen Maura. As part of the Tributes program, Guillermo del Toro unveils his gothic and romantic vision of Frankenstein with Jacob Elordi, while Jodie Foster presents A Private Life, Rebecca Zlotowski's delightful crime comedy.
Two world premieres bring together the biggest stars of Egyptian and Tunisian cinema: El Sett, Marwan Hamed's biopic about the diva Oum Kalthoum, played by Mona Zaki; and Sophia, a chilling thriller directed by and starring Dhafer L'Abidine. A gala evening will celebrate Hamnet by Chloé Zhao, a moving tale of family love, in which the loss of a child inspires the legendary play Hamlet. Filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan comes to Marrakech with Homebound, a touching melodrama about the friendship and dreams of two young Indians played by rising Bollywood stars Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa.
The festival closes with Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, which brings together some of the greatest actors in the Arab world in a historical drama that recounts a decisive moment for the Palestinian people.
The Horizons section presents 19 contemporary films that paint a panorama of world cinema, from new and established filmmakers. It welcomes new work from major filmmakers Claire Denis, Valérie Donzelli, Ildikó Enyedi, Jim Jarmusch, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Park Chan-wook, and Kelly Reichardt, and also highlights a new generation of auteurs: Ali Asgari (Divine Comedy), Simón Mesa Soto (A Poet), Teona Strugar Mitevska (Mother) and Mélisa Godet (A Place for Her). The Horizons selection also celebrates the vitality of Arab cinema, with several films that have made their mark at major festivals: Cherien Dabis’s What's Left of Us won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival; both Hasan Hadi’s The President's Cake and Arab & Tarzan Nasser’s Once Upon a Time in Gaza won awards at the Festival de Cannes; and Cyril Aris’s A Sad and Beautiful World and Kaouther Ben Hania’s
The Voice of Hind Rajab saw success at the Venice International Film Festival. Two captivating documentaries complete the selection: Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 by and Hélène Harder’s Fatna, a Woman Named Rachid, presented as a world premiere.
The 11th Continent program consists of six fiction and nine innovative documentary films that explore a cinema without borders, free in both form and vision. The section presents new films by critically acclaimed filmmakers, including Massoud Bakhshi, Oliver Laxe, Lucrecia Martel, and Hlynur Pálmason, while celebrating daring auteurs like Kamal Aljafari, Lana Daher, Damien Hauser, Dima El-Hor, Gianluca Matarrese, Namir Abdel Messeeh, Lemohang Mosese, and Tamara Stepanyan. The program also includes restored versions of three classics of Arab cinema, including The Mirage by Ahmed Bouanani (1980), which has been restored especially for this occasion.
The Moroccan Panorama delivers seven fiction and documentary films by Moroccan filmmakers, of which two are world and international premieres: Five Eyes by Karim Debbagh and Porte Bagage by Abdelkarim El-Fassi. Moroccan cinema is further highlighted this year with a total of 15 films presented across the various sections of the festival.
The Young Audiences and Families section offers a program aimed at children and youth aged 4 to 18, as well as families, with 13 screenings that celebrate curiosity and an awakening to the art of cinema.
Rounding up this year’s wealth of 82 films, a selection of films by and featuring Jodie Foster, Guillermo del Toro, Raouya, and Hussein Fahmi, personalities to whom the festival offers Tributes this year, are presented at the Palais des Congrès, the Cinéma le Colisée, and the Musée Yves Saint-Laurent.