Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho Named Patron of Marrakech Atlas Workshops
Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho will mentor emerging filmmakers as patron of the ninth Atlas Workshops in Marrakech next month.
The workshops run Nov. 22 to 26 as part of the Marrakech Film Festival, reported by Variety. The patron acts as a guide and sounding board for selected directors and producers. Mendonça Filho succeeds Romanian director Cristian Mungiu and American director Jeff Nichols in the role, according to Deadline.
The Atlas Workshops is the festival's professional platform for Moroccan, Arab and African cinema. It was founded in 2018 and now sits within the Atlas Programs, which groups the festival's industry initiatives. The workshops are led by head Hédi Zardi.
Mendonça Filho knows Marrakech well. He attended last year's festival while presenting The Secret Agent. That film won best director at Cannes, then picked up two Golden Globes and four Academy Award nominations, Variety reported. His earlier directing credits include Aquarius from 2016. Born in Recife, Brazil, he studied journalism and worked for years as a film critic and programmer, according to the festival site.
This year the selection is large. Organisers chose 30 projects and films from 320 projects in development, the early writing and financing stage, and 90 films in production or post-production, the shooting and editing stages.
The 30 break down into 14 projects in development, 11 films in production or post-production, and five projects in Atlas Close-Ups, a section dedicated to Moroccan cinema.
Fourteen countries are represented: Algeria, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.
The development slate includes 12 fiction features and two documentaries. Six are debut features, or first-time films from their directors. Among them are new projects from Amjad Abu Alala, Laila Abbas, Meryem Benm'Barek, Sofia Alaoui and Yasmine Benkiran. Algerian filmmaker Sarra Ryma brings a first feature to the slate. Her short What Do The Maknines Dream Of played in Cannes Critics' Week. French-Senegalese filmmaker Dyana Gaye will present Studio Kébé, a Dakar-set musical described as her first film in a decade.
Five of the 11 films in production or post-production are also debut features. Four titles return after an earlier appearance at the workshops in development. They are Seasons of the Weary Kind from Rwanda's Samuel Ishimwe, Eldorado from Morocco's Alaa Eddine Aljem, Fagadaga from Senegal's Yoro Mbaye and Wolfmother from Morocco's Ismaël El Iraki. Lebanese director Jessy Moussallem will present Faux Bijoux, a feature extension of her award-winning short of the same name.
The Atlas Close-Ups strand features five Moroccan projects, four fiction films and one documentary. Titles include Amar Made His Dream Come True, B512, The Man Who Forgot To Die and The Cemetery's Birds.
Beyond features, this year's Atlas Station welcomes eight filmmakers chosen from 30 applicants, four women and four men. Five Moroccan short films in post-production, four fiction and one documentary, were picked from 24 submissions for Atlas support.
What makes this stand out is the pipeline. Films meet the workshops early, then come back with footage. For viewers, that is how names and titles first enter circulation long before a festival premiere or cinema release.
