MARRAKESH: Emerging filmmakers from Africa and the Arab world gathered in Marrakesh this week for a series of workshops to refine their film projects, secure funding and build industry connections.

Held during the Marrakech International Film Festival, the Atlas Workshops brought together filmmakers from 13 countries working on projects at various stages of development.

“Having it (the workshops) in Africa makes a lot of sense,” said Babatunde Apalowo, a 38-year-old Nigerian director working on his second feature film, which explores the social pressures shaping a Nigerian couple’s lives. “This is probably the only way to really develop local talents,” he added.

The five-day programme included one-on-one consultations and group sessions with international industry mentors.

“This initiative fills a critical gap for filmmakers from Africa and the Arab world, who often lack access to platforms of this calibre,” said Remi Bonhomme, the project’s art director.

Since the programme’s launch in 2018, he said, the workshops have supported 152 projects, including 60 from Morocco.

In 2024, six films that had taken part in the sessions were selected for the Berlinale, including Tunisian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur’s “Who Do I Belong To?”, which competed in the festival’s main section. Other projects have premiered at festivals in Cannes, Venice and Locarno.

Danish screenwriter Valeria Richter, who led group sessions on audience design, said “bringing people together and creating connections is at the heart of this programme”.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2024