Moroccan talent will step into the spotlight at this year’s EFM, crowning a generational growth spurt for the country’s film industry.
Long prized for its stability, infrastructure and natural locations, Morocco’s production sector shifted into a new gear in 2018 with the introduction of a tax credit, now capped at 30%. That same year, the Marrakech Film Festival launched the Atlas Workshops, an industry platform designed to connect emerging regional filmmakers with sales agents and co-production partners on home turf.
Atlas’ remit has expanded exponentially since, supporting more than 150 projects and helping launch filmmakers such as Asmae El Moudir, whose 2023 hybrid documentary “The Mother of All Lies” became one of the most internationally acclaimed Moroccan films to date. At the same time, foreign productions have surged, with titles like Oliver Laxe’s “Sirāt” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” transforming Morocco’s landscapes into immersive big screen worlds. In 2025 alone, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM) backed 23 foreign features through the incentive scheme, generating more than $165 million in local investment.
Domestic production has risen in parallel, with the industry delivering 54 films last year — a dramatic leap from the turn of the millennium, when output had dipped to just four features.
Now firmly established as both a premier service destination and a rising industry hub, Morocco is looking outward, fielding major delegations at platforms such as Venice Production Bridge and this year’s EFM to connect a new generation of filmmakers directly to the global market.
Films like “The Odyssey” and “Sirāt” have taken advantage of Moroccan locations — and a 30% tax rebate.
“We are a country of stories,” says CCM director Mohammed Reda Benjelloun. “But the challenge today is scale. It’s no longer enough for one, two, or three films a year to travel internationally; we need five or 10. Developing a project is one thing; pitching it on the international stage is another. A strong narrative and a solid dossier are essential, but convincing European producers and international funding bodies to invest is real work. That’s why it’s so important for our filmmakers to be here, confronting the market and understanding how it truly operates.”
Reflecting those ambitions, the CCM will bring 10 producers — chosen from more than 75 applicants and vetted for gender parity and international potential — to this year’s Berlin market. The EFM will also host a promo screening of Laila Marrakchi’s “Strawberries,” fresh off its top post-production prize at the Atlas Workshops and poised to become one of the year’s most high-profile Moroccan features.
At home, a parallel push is underway, with film schools and professional training programs expanding, alongside renewed efforts to engage the Moroccan diaspora. As Benjelloun puts it, the goal is to “internationalize the production process, but not the stories.”
“K-1”
Selected for the Berlinale Series Market, the police procedural “K-1” offers one example. Showrunner Khadija Alami designed the project to meet international standards — introducing the showrunner model itself — while handing off episodic duties to acclaimed feature directors Yasmine Benkiran, Nour-Eddine Lakhmari and Hicham Ayouch to lend each episode genuine cinematic heft.
“It’s a new way of working in Morocco, and I think it’s going to spark something,” says Alami, who runs production services outfit K-Films and has long served as a bridge to Hollywood.
After a century of foreign shoots in the country, few ever stopped to ask what Moroccan directors might bring to the table. “K-1” was her answer. “We already have the skills, the crews, the vision. Now we’re proving it — on our own terms, and at the same level as British, French or American creators.”
“We can’t just make small, insular projects for ourselves,” adds producer Lamia Chraibi. “We often talk about American soft power, but today every filmmaker in our region feels that if we don’t tell our own stories, Orientalist narratives will persist. We need to work carefully and with skill to challenge global audiences and get our stories out as widely as possible.”
Indeed, Alami and Chraibi are part of a wave repositioning Morocco’s film industry as an international creative partner, not merely a service provider. Not coincidentally, both are among the 10 producers heading to Berlin for the Moroccan Producers Spotlight.
“There’s a big difference between a producer who simply manages funds and a creative producer who shapes the story, the script, and the strategy for financing and distribution,” Chraibi explains. “Until recently, that role barely existed in Morocco, yet this global understanding is essential in a country where budgets are limited.”
While developing co-productions through her Casablanca-based outfit LaProd — which helped launch Laxe with his 2016 Cannes Critics’ Week grand-prize-winning “Mimosas” — Chraibi has made an even broader impact as co-founder of the Tamayouz Foundation. Established in that pivotal year of 2018, the non-profit provides entry-level training for women in directing, screenwriting, production, and post-production, alongside financial support and mentorship.
Over the past five years, roughly 100 filmmakers have passed through the foundation’s residencies, training programs, and professional workshops, supporting emerging talent looking to make the leap into features.
Among its alumni is producer Oumayma Zekri Ajarrai, who produced last year’s Cannes Critics’ Week short-film winner “L’mina,” and will also attend the Moroccan Producers Spotlight to help launch her Tamayouz-supported feature project “Road to Limbo,” directed by Ayoub Lahnoud.
“We focus on nurturing careers,” Chraibi says. “We maintain a community-based approach, supporting alumni over the long term — whether they need legal advice or strategic guidance. With the active support of the CCM, our goal is to push the system forward: to renew it, open it up, and make room for an industry that is already transforming.”
Filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem — another of the 10 producers selected for Berlin — embodies that generational shift. Two decades ago, Aljem was among the first graduates of Marrakech’s ESAV film school, co-founded by Martin Scorsese. Today, he runs that same institution, welcoming roughly 40 new students each year into bachelor’s and master’s programs offering specialized tracks in cinematography, sound, editing, directing and screenwriting.
The growth of Morocco’s film sector has not only created more opportunities locally but has also attracted an increasing number of international applicants — a trend reflected directly in Aljem’s own projects.
Alongside his academic duties, he continues to work steadily as a producer and director, diligently integrating ESAV alumni into key technical roles on films such as “Out of School” — a feature documentary directed by Hot Docs winner Hind Bensari, which recently claimed two prizes at Final Cut in Venice — and his upcoming feature “El Dorado,” slated to shoot later this year.
Looking ahead, Aljem wants to expand ESAV’s graphic design, VFX and animation facilities — echoing the CCM’s goal of turning Morocco into a full-service production and post-production hub. “Today, ESAV is operating at roughly half its potential,” he explains. “There’s still room to grow, both in scale and scope. Over the next five years, the goal is steady development, aligned with what festivals, the CCM, and other institutions are doing. We’re living through a pivotal period for Moroccan cinema; the sector is changing as the industry takes greater structure.”
