Kleber Mendonça Filho to Mentor Atlas Workshops in Marrakech

Kleber Mendonça Filho, the Brazilian director of "The Secret Agent," will serve as patron of the ninth edition of the Atlas Workshops, the Marrakech Film Festival's professional platform for Moroccan, Arab and African cinema, from Nov. 22 to 26.

Mendonça Filho built his international reputation with "Neighboring Sounds" (2012), "Aquarius" (2016) and "Bacurau" (2019), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. "The Secret Agent" (2025) won him the award for best director at Cannes, then two Golden Globes and four Academy Award nominations this year.

Mendonça Filho said: "Listening to new ideas and understanding the aspirations of new generations of filmmakers is a source of inspiration for my own work."

He added: "And all of this in Marrakech, such a fascinating city, which hosts such an exceptional film festival. Last year, during my Conversation at the festival, I was asked whether I had ever planned to shoot a film in this city. Serving as the patron of the Atlas Workshops makes me feel as though I'm witnessing, right before my eyes, the birth of new films."

What does this year's selection look like?

The festival chose 30 projects and films from 320 projects in development and 90 films in production or post-production. The selection breaks into three categories:

• 14 projects in development
• 11 films in production or post-production
• 5 projects in Atlas Close-Ups, a section dedicated to Moroccan cinema

Fourteen countries appear in the selection: Algeria, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.

The development slate includes 12 fiction films and two documentaries. Six are debut feature-length films.

Several filmmakers arrive with established track records: Amjad Abu Alala ("You Will Die at Twenty"), Laila Abbas ("Thank You for Banking With Us"), Meryem Benm'Barek ("Sofia," "Behind the Palm Trees"), Sofia Alaoui ("Animalia") and Yasmine Benkiran ("Queens").

How does the pipeline repeat itself?

The system shows its results in the numbers. Of the 11 films in production or post-production — five of them debut features — four previously received development support from the Atlas Workshops:

• Samuel Ishimwe's "Seasons of the Weary Kind" (Rwanda), selected in 2019
• Alaa Eddine Aljem's "Eldorado" (Morocco), selected in 2020
• Yoro Mbaye's "Fagadaga" (Senegal), selected in 2022
• Ismaël El Iraki's "Wolfmother" (Morocco), selected in 2023

The Atlas Close-Ups program features five Moroccan projects: four fiction films and one documentary.

What about Morocco's own professionals?

Atlas Station, conceived to support young Moroccan professionals, welcomes eight filmmakers chosen from 30 applicants — four women and four men. They will join a professional development program covering aspects of film production, in meetings with international professionals.

The program also backs five Moroccan short films in post-production — four fiction and one documentary — selected from 24 submissions. Teams receive support tailored to their film's needs, particularly in final editing and distribution.

Founded in 2018, the Atlas Workshops now sit under the Atlas Programs, which gathers the professional initiatives of the Marrakech Film Festival. Atlas Press supports film criticism. The Atlas Distribution Meetings brings together some 60 professionals from Africa, the Arab world and Europe to foster networking and the circulation of films, with the Atlas Distribution Awards funding distribution.

The Atlas Workshops, Atlas Station and Atlas Distribution Meetings run in Marrakech from Nov. 22 to 26. Atlas Press runs from Nov. 23 to 27.

With a Cannes-winning director as patron and four returning alumni in the pipeline, the ninth edition will test whether Marrakech can keep converting development support into finished films for the region.