Jesse Eisenberg's 'The Debut' to Open 23rd Marrakech Film Festival

Jesse Eisenberg's "The Debut" will open the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival on November 20, with Julianne Moore starring as a shy housewife cast in a community theater musical who transforms into a zealous Method actor. Both Eisenberg and Moore are expected to attend the out-of-competition gala, which runs through November 28.

The lineup, announced for the Moroccan festival, pairs Hollywood premieres with a competition built around new voices. Luca Guadagnino's "Artificial," which traces the rise of OpenAI founder Sam Altman, played by Andrew Garfield, gets its regional premiere. Guadagnino is a Marrakech regular; so is James Gray, who returns with the crime thriller "Paper Tiger," starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller.

Two gala screenings are world premieres:

• Brazilian director Fellipe Barbosa's "Leila et la nuit," inspired by the life of Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, starring Roschdy Zem and Marina Foïs.
• Egyptian director Omar Hilal's "His Weakest Creatures," pairing Egyptian stars Ahmed Helmy and Hend Sabry on screen for the first time.

John Turturro will present Noah Segan's "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York," delivering what the program calls a standout performance as an aging pickpocket contending with the contemporary world. Laïla Marrakchi's "Strawberries," Morocco's Oscars entry, also screens in the section. It follows Moroccan seasonal laborers hired to pick strawberries in Spain who decide to stand up to their abusive employers.

Who is competing for the Étoile d'Or?

The Official Competition features 14 first and second features vying for the Étoile d'Or, awarded by a jury headed by actor Marion Cotillard. Three competition titles are world premieres: the Sahara-set drama "Alkebulan" by Moroccan director Yassine Marco Marroccu; Iranian-Norwegian filmmaker Farzad Samsami's "Waves of Silence," a Morocco-set drama about migrant shipwrecks; and "Cairo Shadows," a political thriller set in Egypt's Coptic Christian community, directed by Rani Massalha and Salem Massalha.

Regional premieres of films already surfaced elsewhere include:

• Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's post-genocide drama "Ben'imana," which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.
• Palestinian director Abdallah Alkhatib's "Chronicles From the Siege," depicting Palestinian lives on the front lines.
• Rafiki Fariala's "Congo Boy," a Cannes standout about the musical dreams of a young Congolese refugee.
• Lebanese director Rami Kodeih's bank-heist thriller "Furies," set against the Lebanese economic crisis.

What does the Horizons section bring?

The Horizons section holds 21 films "that demonstrate the vitality and diversity of world cinema," as the festival put it, including several titles that have won top honors at Cannes and Venice. New works by Ryusuke Hamaguchi ("All of a Sudden"), Cristian Mungiu ("Fjord"), Pawel Pawlikowski ("Fatherland"), Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Look Back") and Nanni Moretti ("It Happened One Night") are slated. Arab cinema figures in the section with Egyptian director Mohammed Hammad's psychological thriller "Safe Exit," Sara Ishaq's Yemen-set "The Station," and the Gaza-set documentary "Citizen Osama," directed by Ahmed Hassouna.

The Moroccan Panorama opens with Tala Hadid's "Bardi," about a traveling brotherhood of horsemen crossing Morocco, and features six works overall. Eleven Moroccan films run across the festival's sections, alongside three films shot in Morocco.

What does this change for Marrakech's standing? With an Oscar-entry Moroccan premiere, two gala world premieres and a Cotillard-led jury, the 23rd edition positions itself as the region's first stop for both Arab cinema and awards-season titles — though the festival has not yet named closing-night film.