Rabat – Moroccan cinema won several awards at the 53rd Carthage Film Festival from October 26 to November 2 in Tunis, with female Moroccan directors at the forefront.
Maryam Touzani’s “Adam” won the African Film Critics Federation Award. The film also won prizes in the short fiction film competition, with Virgine Surdej collecting the prize for best image and Julie Naas winning for best editing.
“Adam” premiered at Cannes in May 2019, where it received a standing ovation. The drama went on to win an audience award at the Angouleme French Film Festival in August.
“Adam” will represent Morocco at the 2020 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Category. Touzani will be the first woman to represent Morocco at the Academy Awards.
“Chebba,” a fiction-documentary short film by Moroccan filmmaker Yasmine Benabdallah, won the “Cinefilia” prize at the Carthage Film Festival. The film depicts the ritual purification from the evil eye by four generations of women in the same Moroccan family.
Moroccan actress, singer, and director Latefa Ahrrare received the “HAKKA Distribution” and “Carthage for Promising Cinema” awards for her film “Le Dernier Voyage.”
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Other Moroccan filmmakers participated in the Carthage Film Festival. Out of 170 films at the festival, only 44 films were in official competition.
Said Khallaf’s “Les egares,” Ismael Ferroukhi’s “Mica,” and Asmae El Moudir’s “Mensonge originel” were also on the event’s program.
Moroccan cinema has had a successful season, receiving various awards and accolades last month at the Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival in Egypt and at the Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in Spain.
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