Italian director Paolo Sorrentino has been named as jury president of Morocco’s Marrakech Worldwide Movie Competition, which can run as a bodily occasion for the primary time in three years from 11 to 19 November.
The Oscar-winning The Nice Magnificence and nominated The Hand Of God filmmaker beforehand attended the pageant in 2013, as a member of the jury presided over by Martin Scorsese alongside Marion Cotillard, Golshifteh Farahani and Park Chan-wook amongst others.
“The Marrakech Worldwide Movie Competition is for me the place the place the dream of watching quite a few movies with Martin Scorsese, and of spending days speaking about cinema with him and different proficient colleagues, got here true,” mentioned Sorrentino.
The jury awards the pageant’s Golden Star (Étoile d’Or) to one of many 14 first or second characteristic movies within the worldwide competitors. Latest winners embody Austrian director Sudabeh Mortezai’s Pleasure (2018) and Colombian filmmaker Nicolas Rincon Gille’s Valley of Souls (2019).
This might be a very vital version for Marrakech because it marks the occasion’s first in-person iteration since 2019 after the pandemic led to its cancellation in 2020 and likewise scuppered hopes of a revival in 2021.
“I consider—I wish to consider—that cinemas will refill once more, and I’m positive that many fantastic movies might be launched quickly. To witness this revival from such a symbolic place, to find the cinema of tomorrow from such an fascinating cultural and geographical standpoint, might be a further reward,” mentioned Sorrentino.
This 12 months additionally marks the primary bodily version for incoming inventive director Rémi Bonhomme who was appointed to the position on the eve of the pandemic and saved the spirit of the occasion alive all through this time with digital iterations of its industry-focused Atlas Workshops challenge market.