Marrakech, September 2026 — From 25 to 30 September 2026, the Marrakech Short Film Festival (MARRAKECHsFF) returns for its sixth edition with an expanded ambition: to make short film not only a space for discovery and creation, but also a platform for professional development, international circulation and cultural diplomacy.
Through its National and International Competitions, two juries, its Guest Country Malta, and a strengthened professional programme, MARRAKECHsFF continues to connect Morocco with African and international cinema. The 2026 edition brings together films, filmmakers and professionals from a wide range of territories — from Africa and Europe to the Middle East and Kazakhstan — creating new connections between films, people and ideas.
Two Juries, Multiple Cinematic Perspectives
The International Jury will be presided over by Tûba Büyüküstün, internationally acclaimed Turkish actress, visual artist and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She will be joined by Charlotte Regan, British filmmaker; Alice Kharoubi, Director of Programming at the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes; and Daniela Stephan, Lebanese writer-director.
The National Jury will be presided over by Moroccan actor, director and screenwriter Rachid El Ouali, alongside Jalila Talemsi, actress and academic, and Hicham Brahimi.
Beyond their role in evaluating the competitions, jury members will contribute to the wider festival programme through screenings, masterclasses, conversations and round tables. These encounters are designed to encourage direct exchange between established professionals, emerging filmmakers, students and audiences, placing transmission and dialogue at the heart of the festival experience.
AMANAR: Connecting Emerging Talent with the Industry
With AMANAR, MARRAKECHsFF brings together its industry, development and production-support activities within a dedicated professional platform. Developed in collaboration with AFAC and the British Council, AMANAR combines project development, mentorship, Industry Talks, professional meetings and Pitch Days.
The programme is built around a simple principle: supporting a film should not begin or end with its festival screening. AMANAR seeks to accompany emerging filmmakers through the different stages of their projects, creating pathways towards development, financing, production and international circulation.
For its 2026 edition, AMANAR will bring participants into direct conversation with professionals and representatives connected to major international institutions, festivals and industry platforms, including the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, El Gouna Film Festival, FESPACO and the CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée.
These encounters will create concrete opportunities for filmmakers to engage with programmers, producers, institutions and potential partners. AMANAR is therefore conceived not simply as a festival programme, but as a longer-term bridge between talent, projects and the international film industry.
Bridges of Reality: When Africa Tells Its Own Story
This new industry dimension is complemented by Bridges of Reality, developed in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain and dedicated to African documentary cinema, its diasporas and the circulation of narratives from the continent.
Curated by Alex Moussa Sawadogo, with conversations moderated by Mustapha Sawadogo, the programme is structured around a central idea: “When Africa Tells Its Own Story.”
Through screenings, professional encounters and conversations, Bridges of Reality explores questions of authorship, representation and the ways in which African realities reach audiences. The programme seeks to shift perspectives by creating a space in which Africa is not simply represented from the outside, but produces, shapes and circulates its own images and narratives.
Creating New Routes for African Short Films
Film circulation is becoming one of the central pillars of MARRAKECHsFF. For the festival, supporting a film cannot stop at selection or exhibition. The challenge is also to enable films to meet new audiences, festivals, markets and professional networks.
By bringing filmmakers into dialogue with programmers, producers, funding institutions and international festivals, MARRAKECHsFF aims to contribute to a stronger ecosystem for Moroccan and African short films, developing routes towards international markets while also encouraging greater circulation between African territories themselves.
Programming, development, production and circulation are therefore increasingly considered as interconnected stages of the same process.
Malta as Guest Country: Cinema as Cultural Diplomacy
Cultural diplomacy remains another major pillar of MARRAKECHsFF. In 2026, Malta is the festival’s Guest Country, opening a new space for cinematic and cultural dialogue between Morocco, the Mediterranean and Europe.
The focus reflects the festival’s wider international vision: using cinema as a common language capable of connecting territories, institutions and new generations of artists. The geographical diversity of the 2026 programme further reinforces this ambition, bringing different cultures and cinematic perspectives together in Marrakech.
Marrakech as a Space for Cinema, Exchange and Development
Through its competitions and juries, AMANAR, Bridges of Reality, professional encounters and its growing commitment to film circulation, MARRAKECHsFF continues its evolution from a screening festival into an ecosystem connecting creation, development, production, industry, transmission, circulation and cultural diplomacy.
From 25 to 30 September 2026, Marrakech will become a place where films are not only screened, but where projects are developed, professionals meet, emerging voices are supported and new collaborations are built across borders.
MARRAKECHsFF 2026 — Films. People. Ideas. A Brighter Tomorrow.