Marrakech Film Festival Bolsters African and Arab Distribution With Launch of Atlas Distribution Award (EXCLUSIVE)

Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner have ended their relationship,Mariah Carey and her boyfriend Bryan Tanaka have people convinced that they split. Rumors began circulating several days ago that the singer and the dancer, who have been together since 2016, called it quits. Several clues support this theory, for example, Carey has been traveling solo on her Merry Christmas One and All! Tour.According to sources like E! News, Tanaka has not been on the tour, which kicked off in mid-November.

Alex Batty is back in the UK and 'with his family', six years after he went missing. The teenager from Oldham who disappeared in 2017, aged 11, has flown back from France where he was found earlier this week.

A newly resurfaced interview with Alex Batty's grandmother revealed how his mum led a 'chaotic' lifestyle and 'got involved with a cult' before the boy went missing.

The third annual Red Sea Film Festival handed out its Yusr Awards on Thursday night, with Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames taking Best Feature and Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher scoring a pair of wins including Best Actor for Saleh Bakri. See the full list below.

A couple have revealed how they spent just £165 for a weekend away in two countries. Jamie MacLeod and his wife Sarah got more bang for their buck when they were able to vacation in Marrakesh and Barcelona for less than a train ticket from Edinburgh to London.

Karim Debbagh‘s leading Tangier-based line producer Kasbah Films has secured a raft of U.S. and U.K. projects that will lense in Morocco, including “Lords of War,” the sequel to “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage as the world’s most notorious arms dealer.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Nabil Ayouch, a leading Moroccan filmmaker whose latest movie as a producer “The Blue Caftan” became the first Moroccan film to ever make it to the Oscars shortlist, is wrapping up his next directorial effort, “Everybody Loves Touda.” Now in post-production, “Everybody Loves Touda” follows the journey of a strong-willed woman, along the lines of some of Ayouch’s best known films, such as “Much Loved” and “Razzia,” which played at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Toronto, respectively. The movie will mark Ayouch’s directorial follow up to “Casablanca Beats,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and marked the first Moroccan feature to vie for a Palme d’Or.

Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir has made history at the 20th edition of Morocco’s Marrakech Film Festival as the first local director to win its top prize with her hybrid documentary The Mother Of All Lies.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Untamed Talent, a management and production company led by former Mister Smith Entertainment executive Antone Saliba, is launching with the backing of Dubai-based Front Row Productions, a joint venture of leading Middle East distribution companies Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment. Front Row Productions will provide capital and strategic value to support Untamed Talent’s goals to innovate new business models covering the South West Asia and North Africa region, the fastest-growing entertainment market in the world.

The Marrakech Film Festival celebrated its 20th edition this year, arriving at the landmark some 22 years after its 2001 launch due to the missed years of the pandemic.

Former Mister Smith sales executive Antone Saliba has launched management and production company Untamed Talent, with the backing of Dubai-based Front Row Productions.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Though the Red Sea Film Festival will feature a slew of films from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – including 11 feature films from Saudi Arabia – there is a rich roster of international fare set to launch locally from Jeddah. Kaleem Aftab, the festival’s director of international programming, says they received lots more submissions for this year’s third edition.

In Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount+, Laysla De Oliveira shocks and awes as Cruz Manuelos, a military recruit who escapes the mean streets to go undercover in the CIA’s war against terrorism.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Melita Toscan du Plantier has been the driving force behind the Marrakech Film Festival ever since her late husband, revered French producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, wrote to Morocco’s king two decades ago expressing “his ambition for a big international festival in Morocco,” as she recounts. The festival’s 20th edition is currently underway in the ancient Moroccan city, despite the Israel-Hamas conflict that has caused cancellations of several other fests in the region as well as the earthquake that hit the country in September.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Diane Kruger, Bollywood star Ranveer Singh and Saudi actor-writer Abdullah Al-Sadhan are set to receive career honors at Saudi Arabia’s upcoming Red Sea International Film Festival, which has also announced its full jury roster. Joining Baz Luhrmann, who is presiding over the main Red Sea jury, are Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”); Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”); Egyptian actor Amina Khalil; (“Grand Hotel”) and Spain’s Paz Vega (“Sex and Lucía,” “The OA”).

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has unveiled the juries and honorees of its third edition which kicks off on Thursday in the port city of Jeddah.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent After skipping Venice due to the actors’ strike, a busy Willem Dafoe is back on the festival trail, attending the 20th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival with his wife, filmmaker and actor Giada Colagrande. He spoke to Variety about his ties to Morocco, why he’s “happy to be promoting and starting to work again” now that the strike is over, and his role in Tim Burton’s upcoming “Beetlejuice 2.” How does it feel to be back in Marrakech? I’m happy to be back. Morocco for me is “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a film that was a beautiful experience.

Jessica Chastain and Tilda Swinton provided the ultimate study in contrast while attending the second day of the 2023 Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday (November 25) in Marrakech, Morocco.

Ben Croll Martin Scorsese will no longer attend nor participate in the Marrakech Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, citing personal reasons. The award-winning filmmaker was slated to serve as artistic godfather for Marrakech’s industry arm, which spotlights development titles and works-in-progress from dynamic new talents from across the MENA world.

The stars are stepping out in Morocco!