Marrakech Film Festival Director on Luring Talent Like Jacob Elordi, Andrew Garfield and Sean Penn to Cultivate Mentorship of Moroccan Filmmakers
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent From Jacob Elordi‘s new bearded look to Sean Penn’s red carpet debut with girlfriend Valeria Nicov, this year’s Marrakech Film Festival has been making headlines in mainstream media like it never did before.
Yet, the event has existed for 21 years. For over two decades, the festival has indeed played a pivotal role in fostering a new generation of filmmakers from the Arab world, especially Morocco, fueled by the ambition of Marrakech Film Festival director Melita Toscan du Plantier, a Paris-based producer, cinephile and straight shooter.
The Marrakech adventure kicked off in 2001, when her late husband, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, an influential French producer, was asked by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI to help create the film festival.
A year later, HRH Prince Moulay Rachid took over as president of the festival and its foundation, and when Daniel Toscan du Plantier died abruptly in 2003, Melita took the reins.
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