Marrakech Atlas Workshops Reveals Line-up; Kleber Mendonça Filho Set As Patron

Marrakech International Film Festival has selected 30 projects from 14 countries for the ninth edition of its Atlas Workshops industry platform. Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, who directed last year’s breakout hit The Secret Agent, will take on the role of patron.

The line-up includes three development projects from Moroccan filmmakers with established festival records. Sofia Alaoui is preparing The Sleepers, her follow-up to Sundance premiere Animalia; her earlier short So What If The Goat Dies won a César award for best short film.

Yasmine Benkiran returns with Waltz Of The Savages; her debut, Queens, closed Venice Critics’ Week in 2022. Meryem Benm’barek’s Ashes will be her third feature; her first, Sofia, took the screenplay prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2018.

Outside Morocco, Sudan’s Amjad Abu Alala is developing A Beautiful Land To Die, his second fiction feature after You Will Die At Twenty premiered at Venice in 2019. Senegal has two development titles: Dyana Gaye’s Studio Kébé and Safara, the first feature from Awa Moctar Gueye, whose short Timis (Dusk) screened at the 2023 Berlinale.

Meanwhile, 11 projects have been selected for the production and post-production strand of Atlas Workshops, of which four were first supported at the development stage.

Selections include Senegalese director Yoro Mbaye’s debut Fagadaga, as well as Ismaël El Iraki’s Wolfmother, which follows Zanka Contact, a Venice selection in 2020. Rwanda’s Samuel Ishimwe, first selected in 2019, returns with Seasons Of The Weary Kind. Alaa Eddine Aljem’s Eldorado, developed at Atlas Workshops in 2020, is the follow-up to The Unknown Saint, which competed in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019.

In previous years, the patron role was taken by Jeff Nichols and Cristian Mungiu, with Mendonça Filho following the pattern of moving between arthouse credibility and broader international reach.

The in-person programme of Atlas Workshops runs from November 22-26, preceded by five days of online sessions. Marrakech International Film Festival is taking place from November 20 to November 28.

ATLAS WORKSHOPS 2026:

PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT:

Algiers Haze, dir: Sarra Ryma (Algeria)
1st fiction feature

America Is Behind The Door, dir: Laila Abbas (Palestine)
2nd fiction feature

Ashes, dir: Meryem Benm’barek (Morocco)
3rd fiction feature

A Beautiful Land To Die, dir: Amjad Abu Alala (Sudan)
2nd fiction feature

Chronicles Of An Unannounced Death, dir: Dyaa Naim (Syria)
1st fiction feature

Eko Gongon, dir: Carlos Yuri Ceuninck (Cabo Verde)
2nd feature documentary

The Highway, dir: Farah Kassem (Lebanon)
2nd fiction feature

A Lover’s Manifesto, dir: Alfred Tarazi (Lebanon)
1st feature documentary

Safara, dir: Awa Moctar Gueye (Senegal)
1st fiction feature

The Sleepers, dir: Sofia Alaoui (Morocco)
2nd fiction feature

Songs From The City Of The Dead, dir: Abdelwahab Shawky (Egypt)
1st fiction feature

Studio Kébé, dir: Dyana Gaye (Senegal)
2nd fiction feature

Waltz Of The Savages, dir: Yasmine Benkiran (Morocco)
2nd fiction feature

The Zebra’s Shadow, dir: Gaël Kamilindi (Rwanda)
1st fiction feature

FILMS IN PRODUCTION OR POST-PRODUCTION:

1986, dir: Mouayed Zabtia (Libya)
1st fiction feature

Birthday, dir: Lara Zeidan (Lebanon)
1st fiction feature

Eldorado, dir: Alaa Eddine Aljem (Morocco)
2nd fiction feature

Fagadaga, dir: Yoro Mbaye (Senegal)
1st fiction feature

Faux Bijoux, dir: Jessy Moussallem (Lebanon)
1st fiction feature

Hamlet From The Slums, dir: Ahmed Fawzi-Saleh (Egypt)
2nd fiction feature

Mehal Sefari, dir: Abraham Gezahagne (Ethiopia)
3rd fiction feature

My Father Killed Bourguiba, dir: Fatma Riahi (Tunisia)
2nd feature documentary

Occupational Hazards, dir: Bassel Ghandour (Jordan)
2nd fiction feature

Seasons Of The Weary Kind, dir: Samuel Ishimwe (Rwanda)
1st fiction feature

Wolfmother, dir: Ismaël El Iraki (Morocco)
2nd fiction feature

ATLAS CLOSE-UPS:

Amar Made His Dream Come True, dir: Samira El Mouzghibati (Morocco)
2nd feature documentary

B512, The Man Who Forgot To Die, dir: Jihane El Bahhar (Morocco)
3rd fiction feature

The Cemetery’s Birds, dir: Madane El Ghazouani (Morocco)
2nd fiction feature

Like A Sister, dir: Sonia Terrab (Morocco)
1st fiction feature

Medina, dir: Yassine Fennane (Morocco)
4th fiction feature