Maryam Touzani becomes the first Moroccan in Cannes Festival jury

The first Moroccan to sit on the jury at the esteemed Cannes Film Festival will be renowned Moroccan director Maryam Touzani.

Ruben Stlund, a well-known Swedish director, will preside over the official competition jury at Cannes, which also includes Denis Ménochet, Brie Larson, Julia Ducournau, Paul Dano, Rungano Nyoni, Atiq Rahimi, and Damián Szifron.

They will be evaluating works by Todd Haynes, Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti, Aki Kaurismäki, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The Blue Caftan, a movie produced by Touzani’s well-known filmmaker husband Nabil Ayouch, who is also up for an award in the 2022 edition, made its festival debut the year before.

In addition to the formal competition, three Moroccan films that were previously supported and funded by the Atlas Workshops project of the Marrakech film festival will be presented and contending for major awards this year, marking momentous successes for Morocco in Cannes.

Morocco is participating in the festival for the first time with this many contributions, including “The Mother of all lies” by Asmae El Moudir, “Les Meutes” by Kamal Lazraq, and “Deserts” by the legendary Faouzi Bensadi.

Several highly anticipated films, including Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the flower moon,” James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones,” which was shot in Morocco, and The Weeknd and Sam Levinson’s “The Idol,” will be shown at Cannes, which will run from May 16 to May 27.

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