The 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival will be held
from 29 November to 7 December 2013
THE JURY
PRESS RELATIONS MARRAKECH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
MOROCCAN AND PAN-ARAB MEDIA PR MÉDIA
Amin FARES / Fatime Zohra OUTAGHANI
Tel: +212 (0)522 77 75 95 Fax : +212 (0)522 99 67 40 E-mail: amin.fares@prmediacom.com
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LE PUBLIC SYSTÈME CINÉMA
Alexis DELAGE-TORIEL / Céline PETIT
Annelise LANDUREAU / Agnès LEROY / Clément RÉBILLAT / Elsa LEEB
Tel: +33 (0)1 41 34 22 03 Fax: +33 (0)1 41 34 20 77 E-mail: presse@lepublicsystemecinema.fr
www.festivalmarrakech.info
The Feature Film Jury of the 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival will be presided over by the director:
© Brigitte Lacombe
“I'm delighted to have been appointed president of the Jury for the Marrakech International Film Festival this year and I’d like to thank His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid, President of the Foundation of the Festival for his gracious invitation. I have shot two films in Morocco, which has allowed me to admire the spirit of the Moroccan people and the beauty of its culture. I'm looking forward to discovering the films from around the world that will be presented at this unique festival.”
Martin SCORSESE
Martin Scorsese is an Oscar-winning director and one of the most important and influential American filmmakers working today. He has made many critically-acclaimed and prize-winning films including MEAN STREETS, TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, GOODFELLAS, GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE AVIATOR, THE DEPARTED and most recently SHUTTER ISLAND, which was a box-office hit in 2010. He has also made many documentaries including NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN, A LETTER TO ELIA (both winners of a Peabody Award), A PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH MARTIN SCORSESE THROUGH AMERICAN MOVIES, MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, PUBLIC SPEAKING with the writer Fran Lebowitz, and the documentary for HBO, GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD. More recently, Martin Scorsese made the movie HUGO, a 3D adaptation of a book for children written by Brian Selznick, which was nominated for the Oscars and won him a Golden Globe for Best Director. He is currently working as executive producer on the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire, for which he directed the pilot. His latest film, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, will be released in the US on 15 November 2013. He is the founder and president of the Film Foundation and the World Cinema Foundation, two charity organizations dedicated to the preservation, restoration and protection of movies.
© Vanessa Maas / Photo Selection
Director, writer & producer (Turkey & Germany)
Born in 1973 in Hamburg to Turkish immigrants, Fatih Akin became the rising star of German cinema in 1998 with his first feature, SHORT SHARP SHOCK. Two years later, he made the road movie IN JULY with Moritz Bleibtreu and Christiane Paul, as well as the documentary DENK ICH AN DEUTSCHLAND - WIR HABEN VERGESSEN ZURÜCKZUKEHREN, in which he explored the story of his parents’ immigration. In 2002, he made SOLINO, the tale of an Italian family of Gastarbeiter or foreign laborers in the town of Duisburg. But it was with HEAD-ON, which won a Golden Bear in Berlin, that Fatih Akin established his international reputation. His 2005 documentary CROSSING THE BRIDGE - THE SOUND OF ISTANBUL is an exploration of contemporary Turkish music and reveals the diversity of musical influences in that country. In 2007, he made THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, his fifth film, which won many prizes including the Best Screenplay award in Cannes. Two years later, his comedy SOUL KITCHEN won the Jury Grand Prix at Venice. POLLUTING PARADISE, his latest documentary, was premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2012. For his next film, THE CUT, Fatih Akin has cast French actor Tahar Rahim.
© Véronique Vial
Actress (USA)
Since her first movie role in Brian De Palma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), Patricia Clarkson has made many films and worked opposite some renowned partners such as Clint Eastwood in THE DEAD POOL (1988), Burt Lancaster in ROCKET GIBRALTAR (1988) and Peter Falk in AUNT JULIA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER (1990). After some impressive supporting roles, including those alongside Tom Hanks in THE GREEN MILE (1999) and Jack Nicholson in Sean Penn’s THE PLEDGE (2001), she gradually became the muse of independent cinema, starring in a range of titles including WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD by Anthony & Joe Russo, FAR FROM HEAVEN by Todd Haynes in 2002, DOGVILLE by Lars Von Trier, THE STATION AGENT by Thomas McCarthy and PIECES OF APRIL by Peter Hedges in 2003, which won her a nomination for the Golden Globes and the Oscars in that year. In parallel, she played a recurrent character in the hit TV series Six Feet Under, which won her two Emmy Awards in 2006. More recently, Patricia Clarkson has worked on films directed by George Clooney (GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK in 2006), Woody Allen (VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA in 2007 and WHATEVER WORKS in 2009), and Martin Scorsese (SHUTTER ISLAND in 2010). She has also made a couple of incursions into comedy with two films made by Will Gluck: EASY A and FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, before costarring with Anne Hathaway in the romantic drama ONE DAY directed by Lone Scherfig.
© Eliott Bliss / Charlette Studio
Actress (France)
After appearing in films by Philippe Harel (L'HISTOIRE DU GARÇON QUI VOULAIT QU'ON L'EMBRASSE), Arnaud Desplechin (MY SEX LIFE... OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT) and Coline Serreau (LA BELLE VERTE), Marion Cotillard made her name with audiences through Luc Besson’s TAXI franchise, which broke French box office records. Her role in the adaptation of Virginie Despentes’ novel PRETTY THINGS (2001), the first film from Gilles Paquet-Brenner, drew critical attention, and in just a few years, Marion Cotillard had cemented her reputation.
Her international career was launched with Tim Burton’s BIG FISH (2003), while in France, her work received industry recognition with the César for Best Supporting Actress for her role in A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2004). She then enjoyed two very prolific years in France with CAVALCADE by Steve Suissa, THE BLACK BOX by Richard Berry, MA VIE EN L’AIR by Rémi Besançon and DIKKENEK by Olivier Van Hoofstadt; and in the US with A GOOD YEAR by Ridley Scott. Then in 2007, she undertook the role that made her a legend with Olivier Dahan’s LA VIE EN ROSE. Marion Cotillard won a host of awards for her portrayal of Edith Piaf, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a César and the Oscar for Best Actress. Since then, she has worked with some of the most renowned directors including Michael Mann (PUBLIC ENEMIES), Rob Marshall (NINE), Christopher Nolan (INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES), Woody Allen (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS) and Steven Soderbergh (CONTAGION), as well as Guillaume Canet with whom she made LITTLE WHITE LIES. In 2012 Jacques Audiard’s RUST AND BONE was in competition at the Festival de Cannes and earned her another Golden Globe nomination as well as the César for Best Actress. In 2013, she returned to Cannes with THE IMMIGRANT by James Gray, who worked on the script for BLOOD TIES by Guillaume Canet, in which Cotillard also starred. Marion Cotillard will soon be starring in the new film from the Dardenne brothers.
© Jocelyn Bain Hogg
Director, writer & producer (Mexico)
Born in 1979, Amat Escalante spent a large part of his childhood in Mexico before studying film at the Catalonia Center for Cinematographic Studies in Barcelona and then at the International Cinema and Television School in Cuba. After AMARRADOS, a short film that won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002, he shot his first feature-length film, SANGRE, which was selected for the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Festival de Cannes in 2005. Amat Escalante assisted director Carlos Reygadas on the shoot for his film BATTLE IN HEAVEN in 2008, before going back behind the camera to make LOS BASTARDOS which screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes the following year. The film’s radical nature was hailed by the critics. His latest film, HELI, was co-written with Gabriel Reyes, and tells the story of Estela, a 12-year-old girl caught up in a spiral of violence when she falls in love with a young police officer involved in a drugs rip-off. The film was in competition at the Festival de Cannes in 2013 and won Escalante the Best Director prize.
© Fabrizio Maltese / Contour by Getty Images
Actress (Iran)
Golshifteh Farahani was born in 1983 in Teheran. Her father is theater director and actor Behzad Farahani and her mother a sculptor. A talented child, she started playing piano at the age of five and joined the Teheran School of Music when she was just 12.
She was offered a place at the Vienna Conservatory and a career as a great pianist beckoned but Golshifteh Farahani turned down the opportunity, instead taking a role in her first film, THE PEAR TREE by Dariush Mehrjui, which won her the prize for Best Actress at the Fajr Film Festival in Teheran in 1998. She has continued to make films ever since, with 19 movies in a decade, including M FOR MOTHER (2006), in which she plays a pregnant woman contaminated by chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, making her a hugely popular heroine in her own country. Golshifteh Farahani came to attention in the West in 2003 thanks to her roles in TWO ANGELS by Mamad Haghighat and BAB’AZIZ – THE PRINCE THAT CONTEMPLATED HIS SOUL (2005) and HALF MOON by Bahman Ghobadi, which were screened in many festivals. With BODY OF LIES by Ridley Scott (2008), she became the first actress from the Islamic Republic to work in a Hollywood picture. ABOUT ELLY by Asghar Farhadi (2009) was the last film she shot in Iran. She moved to Paris in 2011, where she went on to shoot SI TU MEURS JE TE TUE by Hiner Saleem, and then CHICKEN WITH PLUMS by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. In 2012, she appeared alongside Sienna Miller in JUST LIKE A WOMAN, directed by Rachid Bouchareb, before taking the lead role in THE PATIENCE STONE by Atiq Rahimi. Golshifteh Farahani will soon be reunited with Hiner Saleem for MY SWEET PEPPER LAND, scheduled for release in 2014.
© DR
Director, writer & producer (India)
Anurag Kashyap has made several critically-acclaimed independent films that have screened at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including BLACK FRIDAY (1993), RETURN OF HANUMAN and NO SMOKING in 2007, and DEV D and GULAL in 2009. UDAAN marked his first experience as producer alongside Sanjay Singh and Ronnie Screwvala, and was selected for the Festival de Cannes in 2010 in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. He returned to directing with THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS (2011), produced by Guneet Monga. Two years later, his saga covering six years, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, was presented in Directors’ Fortnight at the Festival de Cannes and was hailed by the international press, which regarded Anurag Kashyap as an emblematic figure of the renewal of Indian cinema. In 2013, he returned to Cannes as both producer and director. His film UGLY was presented in Directors’ Fortnight, which opened with THE CONGRESS by Ari Folman, a movie on which Kashyap acted as associate producer. He also produced MONSOON SHOOTOUT by Amit Kumar, which was part of the Official Selection Out Of Competition, while THE LUNCHBOX by Ritesh Batra screened in La Semaine de la Critique.
© DR
Director, writer & producer (Morocco)
Narjiss Nejjar was born in 1971 in Tangiers and studied directing in Paris before going on to work as assistant producer on several projects. She made several documentaries including L'EXIGENCE DE LA DIGNITÉ (1994), KHADDOUJ, and MÉMOIRE DE TARGHA (1996). She made mid-length movies LA RIVE DES MUETS (1999) and LE MIROIR DU FOU (2002), then the short film, LE SEPTIÈME CIEL (2000). Her first feature, CRY NO MORE, was presented in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2003 and the international press hailed the feminist stance and poeticism of this young director whose film examines prostitution in a Berber village. The film, which was in competition at the Marrakech International Film Festival in the same year, was selected for many other festivals and won numerous prizes. In WAKE-UP MOROCCO (2006), Narjiss Nejjar tells the story of an old footballer and his granddaughter marooned on an island off the coast of Casablanca. With THE RIF LOVER (2011), she returned to a female universe, describing the drug-ravaged lives of the inhabitants of a small mountain village. Loosely based on a novel by Noufissa Sbaï, published by Eddif in 2004, the film opened the 11th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival, in competition.
© DR
Director, writer & producer (South Korea)
A regular of the Cannes, Venice and Berlin Film Festivals, Park Chan-wook has opened up the creative power of Korean cinema to the world. In 2000, with the thriller JOINT SECURITY AREA, and then with what he refers to as his “revenge trilogy” of SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE (2002), OLD BOY (2003) - which won the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Festival de Cannes - and LADY VENGEANCE (2005). The originality of his plots and sensuality of his direction have seen him lauded by audiences and critics around the world. In 2006, he changed register with I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK, an original love story between two patients in a psychiatric hospital. Still in a romantic vein, THIRST (2009) explores the vampire film genre around one of the director’s recurrent themes of the boundary between sin and redemption. It won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes. In 2012, Park Chan-wook shot STOKER in Hollywood, a fantasy film that is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska.
© Gianni Fiorito
Director & writer (Italy)
Naples-born Paolo Sorrentino writes and directs all his own films. His first feature, ONE MAN UP, was in competition at the 2001 Venice Film Festival and received many prizes in Italy and abroad, marking the start of a long collaboration with his favorite actor Toni Servillo. Four years later, THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE was presented in competition at the 57th Festival de Cannes. The film won many awards in Italy including three Silver Ribbons (for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography) and five David di Donatello awards (for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Cinematography). A familiar face at the Festival de Cannes, Paolo Sorrentino returned to the Croisette in 2006 to present THE FAMILY FRIEND and then IL DIVO in 2008, a film about Italian political life that won the Jury Prize. Presented in competition in 2011, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE was a surprise: the director’s first film in English, this road movie follows the tribulations of a former rock star (Sean Penn) who returns to New York after his father’s death. In 2013, Paolo Sorrentino went back to working with his alter-ego Toni Servillo for THE GREAT BEAUTY, which screened in competition in Cannes.
