Jesse Eisenberg’s ‘The Debut’ To Open 2026 Marrakech Film Festival; Full Lineup Unveiled

Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy The Debut, starring Julianne Moore as a shy housewife who discovers a passion for amateur theater, has been unveiled as the opening film of the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival later this month.

It will be among 76 films from 39 countries playing in Morocco’s premiere film festival across the Official Competition and Gala Screenings as well as the Horizons; the 11th Continent; a Moroccan Panorama; Young Audiences and Families; and Tributes sidebars.

Fourteen first and second features will compete for the festival’s Étoile d’Or in Official Competition, showcasing new voices in world cinema, with Marion Cotillard presiding over the jury.

The contenders include Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Cannes Caméra d’Or winner Ben’imana set in the wake of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda; Abdallah Al-Khatib’s In Chronicles from the Siege, about Palestinian civilians trapped in a war zone, which won Best First Feature at the Berlinale, and Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s House of the Wind, a tender portrait of a Cameroonian woman whose children have left for Europe, which won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize and Lion of the Future Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film in Venice

Three contenders will make their world premiere in Marrakech: Moroccan director Yassine Marco Marroccu’s Alkebulan, an adventure film set in the Sahara in the 1960s and Italy in the 1930s; Iranian-Norwegian filmmaker Farzad Samsami’s Waves of Silence, a moral drama about migrant shipwrecks, and Rani and Salem Massalha’s Cairo Shadows, a thriller set in the Coptic Christian community in Egypt.

The Gala Screenings – which kick off with The Debut – include two world premieres: Fellipe Barbosa’s Leila et la nuit, inspired by the life of Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui and starring Roschdy Zem and Marina Foïs, and Omar Hilal’s adventure film and black comedy His Weakest Creatures, which brings Egyptian stars Ahmed Helmy and Hend Sabry together on screen for the first time.

Other highlights of the program include Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro; Laïla Marrakchi’s feminist survival tale Strawberries, which has been selected as Morocco’s submission to the Oscars; James Gray’s Paper Tiger and Luca Guadagnino unveils Artificial.

The Horizons section, giving a snapshot of international independent cinema includes several Cannes honorees topped by Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord and as well as Arab titles that have been making waves on the festival circuit including Mohammed Hammad’s psychological thriller Safe Exit, Sara Ishaq’s The Station and Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama.

The 11th Continent program – showcasing features 13 films that explore free, innovative cinema – includes fiction films by Danielle Arbid, Sompot Chidgasornpongse, and Radu Jude, as well as the documentaries Edward Said: Between Worlds and Bedeau, Transit Camp, the latter a world premiere.

The Moroccan Panorama features six fiction and documentary films, including Tala Hadid’s Bardi, which opens the program, and three world premieres, among them Mohamed Mouftakir’s Hoods. In total, 11 Moroccan films are featured across the festival’s various sections, in addition to three films shot in Morocco.

In the The Young Audiences & Families section, featuring 11 screenings intended for children, teens, and their families, Jamel Debbouze will present Philippe Riche’s animated film Girl in the Clouds, while Mohcine Besri unveils the world premiere of All But My Mother, starring Omar Lotfi and Abdellah Didane.

The festival will run from November 20 to 28.

OFFICIAL COMPETITION

ALKEBULAN (world premiere)
by Yassine Marco Marroccu
Morocco, Hungary, QatarBEN’IMANA
by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway

CAIRO SHADOWS (world premiere)
by Rani Massalha & Salem Massalha
France, Belgium, Tunisia, Egypt

CHRONICLES FROM THE SIEGE
by Abdallah Al-Khatib
Algeria, France, Palestine

CONGO BOY
by Rafiki Fariala
Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JO: CHAPTER PHAEDRA
by Jacqueline Lentzou
Greece, Germany, France

EKLIPSE
by Manuel Wetscher
Austria, Italy

FURIES
by Rami Kodeih
Lebanon, Brazil

HOUSE OF THE WIND
by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia, Qatar

MARIE MADELEINE
by Gessica Généus
France, Haiti, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada

OUR SHARE OF SAND
by Shalini Adnani
United Kingdom, India, Greece

SAD GIRLZ
by Fernanda Tovar
Mexico, Spain, France

WAVES OF SILENCE (world premiere)
by Farzad Samsami
Norway, Morocco, Sweden

THE WORLD BEFORE
by Yoon Dan-bi
South Korea, Japan, France

GALA SCREENINGS

THE DEBUT (opening film)by Jesse Eisenberg
U.S.

ARTIFICIAL
by Luca Guadagnino
U.S. UK, Italy

HIS WEAKEST CREATURES (world premiere)
by Omar Hilal
UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia

LEILA ET LA NUIT (world premiere)
by Fellipe Barbosa
France, Morocco, Brazil


THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK
by Noah Segan
U.S.

PAPER TIGER
by James Gray
U.S, Brazil, Italy

STRAWBERRIES (LA MÁS DULCE)
by Laïla Marrakchi
France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium

HORIZONS

ALL OF A SUDDEN

by Ryusuke HamaguchiFrance, Japan, Germany, Belgium

A BIT OF LIGHT
by Ali Asgari
Iran, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Turkey

THE BURNING GIANTS
by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Thailand, Singapore, France, Netherlands

CITIZEN OSAMA
by Ahmed Hassouna

CLARISSA
by Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri
Nigeria, U.S

DAO
by Alain Gomis
France, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau

THE DIFFICULT BRIDE
by Rubaiyat Hossain
France, Bangladesh, Portugal, Norway, Germany

EVERYTIME
by Sandra Wollner
Germany, Austria

FATHERLAND
by Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland, Germany, Italy, France

FJORD
by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, France, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden

GLAXO
by Benjamín Naishtat
Argentina, Brazil

IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT
by Nanni Moretti
Italy, France, Spain

KETTICÈ
by Giovanni Tortorici
Italy

A LONG WINTER
by Andrew Haigh
UK, Canada

LOOK BACK
by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japan

THE ROSES OF MARRAKECH
by Ginevra Elkann
Italy, Morocco, France

SAFE EXIT
by Mohammed Hammad
Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Tunisia, Germany

THE SMELL OF APPLES
by John Trengove
South Africa, Netherlands, Chile

THE STATION
by Sara Ishaq
Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar

THAT’S ALL FOLKS
by Gustave Kervern
France

WOMAN UNKNOWN
by May el-Toukhy
Denmark, Latvia, Sweden

THE 11TH CONTINENT

9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN

by Sompot ChidgasornpongseThailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar

AL BARANEYA
by Ashgan El-Hamus
Netherlands, Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia

BEDEAU, TRANSIT CAMP (world premiere)
by Yohana Benattar
France – Documentary


THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID
by Radu Jude
France, Romania

EDWARD SAID: BETWEEN WORLDS
by Maiken Baird
U.S. Documentary

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
by Elisé Sawasawa
France, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Documentary

I DESERVE A LOVER WHOSE EVERY RISE SETS FIERY DOOMS RAGING ACROSS THE SKIES

by Mani HaghighiIran – Documentary

NAHLA
by Farouk Beloufa
Algeria – 1979

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM
by William Greaves, David Greaves
U.S.– Documentary

ONLY REBELS WIN
by Danielle Arbid
France, Lebanon, Qatar

TILAÏ
by Idrissa Ouedraogo
Burkina Faso, Switzerland, France – 1990 – restored version

VARIATIONS ON A THEME
by Jason Jacobs & Devon Delmar
South Africa, Netherlands, Qatar

YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP
by Rakan Mayasi
Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia

MOROCCAN PANORAMA

BANOU (world premiere)
by Mouhssine El Badaoui
Belgium, Morocco – Documentary

BARDI
by Tala Hadid
Morocco, France, United States, Qatar – Documentar
HALIMA
by Yassine El Idrissi
Morocco

HOODS (world premiere)
by Mohamed Mouftakir
Morocco

MAN OF SIGNS (world premiere)
by Zhor Fassi-Fihri
Morocco, France

UNTIL DAWN
by Mohamed Zineddaine
Morocco, Italy

CINEMA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES & FAMILIES

ALL BUT MY MOTHER (world premiere)
by Mohcine Besri
Morocco

GIRL IN THE CLOUDS
by Philippe Riche
France, Belgium

THE LAST WHALE SINGER
by Reza Memari
Germany

LOOK BACK
by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japan

MUYI
by Julien Chheng
France

TUMMY TOM AND THE LOST TEDDY BEAR
by Joost van den Bosch, Erik Verkerk
Netherlands, Belgium