Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut Will Open the Marrakech Film Festival

Jesse Eisenberg's film The Debut will open the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival, according to Deadline, which published the lineup on 2 November 2026.

The festival runs from November 20 to 28. Its programme includes 76 films from 39 countries. Fourteen first and second features will compete for the Etoile d'Or, the festival's main competition prize. Marion Cotillard will preside over the jury.

The film stars Julianne Moore as a shy housewife who discovers a passion for amateur theatre. Eisenberg wrote the lead role with Moore in mind, Reuters reported in October. Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey and Havana Rose Liu co-star, according to Variety.

Reuters describes the picture as a musical comedy with seven original songs written for the show-within-the-film, the amateur production at the story's centre. Those songs do much of the work of carrying the plot forward, so the film sits closer to a stage musical than a standard romantic comedy.

The film has already had a busy autumn. It closed the London Film Festival on 18 October, the same month Reuters reported on its curtain-down slot. Marrakech is now its next stop on the festival circuit, a route that many films follow before they reach cinemas and streaming services.

For anyone planning a trip or a night out, the practical details are simple. The festival is in Marrakech, Morocco, and its opening night falls in the first days of its run. Festival openings are chosen by the organisers, so they tell you what the programmers want to showcase first, not how the film will do at the box office.