Official competition, tributes, intellectual meetings... on the programme / Maghreb Film Festival of Oujda: Young talents at the heart of the 15th edition

Event From 16 to 21 October, Oujda will host the 15th edition of the International Maghreb Film Festival. Organised by the Ciné-Maghreb association, this new edition intends to combine cinematic competition, openness to different cultures, and support for young talents, with a programme mixing screenings, tributes, professional meetings, and training workshops. The International Maghreb Film Festival of Oujda returns with a programme that intends to go beyond the framework of the competition. Feature and short films will be at the heart of this 15th edition, alongside screenings, tributes, intellectual and professional meetings, as well as workshops devoted in particular to cultural and digital industries. Through this programme, the Ciné-Maghreb association wishes to make the Oujda event a space for meetings between filmmakers, professionals, young creators, and the public, while fostering the emergence of new vocations in the film and audiovisual professions. Diversity is also one of the markers of this edition through the composition of the two juries. The jury for the feature film competition will be chaired by the Moroccan director and screenwriter Nour-Eddine Lakhmari. He will be surrounded by four personalities from different backgrounds: Amélie Mbaye, a Senegalese artist and professional, Sana Youssef, a Tunisian actress, Mi Kwan Lock, an actress, director, and screenwriter of Chinese origin who grew up in Madagascar, as well as Stan Thiébaut, a French actor. For the short films, the presidency will be entrusted to the Moroccan director Adil Fadili, accompanied by the Congolese actress Diane Uwamahoro and the Italian actress, screenwriter, and director Valentina Carnelutti. A composition that reflects the organisers' desire to confront sensitivities and experiences. By bringing together professionals from several countries and cinematic traditions, the festival intends to offer the films in competition a pluralistic look and an openness to different approaches to creation. For the organisers, supporting young talents must not stop at the end of the festival. On the contrary, it must be part of the long term through training, mentoring, exchanges with professionals, and the creation of concrete opportunities. This vision thus places transmission at the heart of the event. Beyond the discovery of works and the competition, the International Maghreb Film Festival of Oujda seeks to consolidate its role as a platform for exchange, training, and professionalisation. An orientation that gives this 15th edition a particular dimension: that of a festival that intends to make youth not only an audience, but also an actor in the future of cinema and audiovisuals.