Palestinian ‘Happy Holidays’ movie wins Marrakech International Film Festival’s top prize, l’Etoile d’Or
The 21st annual Marrakech International Film Festival concluded on Saturday with the awarding of the festival’s various prizes.
The prize, the Golden Star, was awarded to“Happy Holidays” movie by Palestinian director Scandar Copti.
The 123-minute feature film delicately examines the tension between emancipation and conservatism within the 1948 Palestinian society, reflecting a profound belief that societal progress is intrinsically linked to the empowerment of women.
Polish Damian Kocur won the Best Director award for his “Under the Volcano” movie.
The Best Actor prize was awarded to Ukrainian actor Roman Lutskyi for his role in “Under The Volcano”, while Lebanese talents Manar Chahab and Wafa Aoun shared the Best Actress award for their performances in “Happy Holidays.”
The Jury Prize was awarded ex-aequo to “La Quinta” (“The Cottage”), directed by Argentinian Silvina Schnicer and co-produced by Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and Chile, and “The Village Next to Paradise,” directed by Somalian Mo Harawi. The director of this movie, supported by Atlas Workshops program, had won a post-production award last year. The film tells a story of love, hope, and resilience amid poverty and despair in a Somali village.
Accepting her award, Palestinian director Iskandar Qubti said: “No one is free until we are all free, especially the women among us.”
“I thank the Marrakech Festival for being a platform that amplifies marginalized voices and sheds light on the crimes against humanity that we must never forget,” he added.
The jury for this year’s festival included prominent international figures such as American actress Patricia Arquette, Belgian actress Virginie Efira, British-American actor Andrew Garfield, Australian actor Jacob Elordi, Moroccan actress Nadia Kounda, Indian filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, Iranian director Ali Abbasi, and Argentinia filmmaker Santiago Mitre.
This year’s festival paid tribute to three cinema icons: the late Moroccan actress Naima Elmcharqui, Canadian director David Cronenberg, and American actor-director Sean Penn.
During the closing ceremony, Italian director and jury president Luca Guadagnino thanked the jury members for their excellent work, deeming Marrakech the capital of cinema in December.
As usual, the program for this 21st edition of the Festival was an opportunity to discover and explore an extremely wide range of cinematic genres. A total of 71 films from 32 countries, divided into 6 sections, were screened in the Festival’s various venues in Marrakech.
Among this selection, 12 films benefited from the support of Atlas Workshops, the industry talent development program initiated by the Festival in 2018.
This year’s festival was attended by some 300 Moroccan professionals and was covered by 170 accredited media from all over the world.
