The Moroccan film industry is booming again, with film shoots and film production on the rise, despite the closure of dozens of cinemas in recent years limiting the number of films that are screened, stated the French Development Agency (AFD) on Tuesday.
The emergence of a new wave of Moroccan directors on the international scene over the last two years illustrates the dynamism of Moroccan cinema. As of 2022, 25 film shoots were underway.
This year, director, scriptwriter and producer Asmae El Moudir is preparing to climb the steps of the 77th Cannes Film Festival to join the jury in the section known as “Un Certain Regard” (“a certain look”). A year ago, at the age of 31, she won the director’s prize for her feature film The Mother of All Lies.
In the meantime, Moroccan actress Lubna Azabal is chairing the Short Films and Cinef juries, and director Nabil Ayouch, a leading light of Moroccan cinema, will be premiering his film Everybody Loves Touda.
Audiences in Moroccan movie theaters have dropped dramatically over the previous four decades, and only 21 cinemas remained in operation in 2022, compared to 250 in the 1980s.
The new 100% Moroccan, film-streaming platform, Aflamin, which offers independent Moroccan and international films and won the AFD Digital Challenge 2023, aims to make cinema accessible to all.
To help the sector develop and regain its leading position in the Arab world, the Moroccan government has pledged to open 150 cinemas in the kingdom’s twelve regions, 50 of which have just been inaugurated.
Others, like Ayouch, one of the founders of Aflamin, are turning to digital.
In 2023, Aflamin was one of the ten winners of the AFD Digital Challenge, a competition that promotes innovative projects proposed by African start-ups. They were joined by start-ups from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Uganda, and South Africa.
The project, which was launched two years ago, aims to contribute to the dynamism of Moroccan cinema by giving it a higher profile in Morocco.
It also gives the general public legal access to Moroccan films, which up until now had only been available in digital format through pirating.
“Nowadays, there are some superb films made by Moroccan directors that are well-known all around the world, and they circulate better and are distributed more easily abroad than in Morocco,” explained director and co-founder of Aflamin, Yasmina Tamer. “Aflamin is helping to change that.”
Aflamin also supports film screenings in schools as part of a cinema-based image education initiative launched by several Moroccan groups.
The school program will allow students to get an understanding of cinema and be able to critically assess the images around them, particularly those on social media.
Often blamed for the downturn in global movie attendance, streaming services are also creating new prospects for indie cinema in Morocco and abroad.