The Marrakech International Film Festival (MIFF) which this year will run from November 28th to December 6th, 2025, has announced its highly anticipated line up for their Conversation Program.
Each year, the Marrakech International Film Festival presents its Conversations program—a rare space for discussing cinema from a different perspective. Those who bring cinema to life in all its forms, both in front of and behind the camera, join them onstage to share with audiences what shapes their vision and fuels their commitment to the Seventh Art. These are always super attended events and for some filmmakers, like last year’s participant Tim Burton, there is more demand than spaces, inside the theater within the Meydene cultural center, located in the M Avenue complex. So many of us were left disappointed at being unable to listen to him talk about his life, creative process and career.
This year’s line up will also be very popular, as several world cinema personalities will come together for a program not to be missed.
The individual conversations, which are always moderated by festival directors, programmers or highly esteemed journalists and figures in the cinema world, this year include:
South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, who is head of the jury in MIFF this year and the winner of the Palme d'or and four Academy Awards for Parasite; Mexican director, screenwriter, and producer Guillermo del Toro, presenting Frankenstein to Marrakech audiences. He is the winner of three Oscars, two for The Shape of Water and one for Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; Australian director and screenwriter Andrew Dominik (Chopper, Blonde); US actor, director, and producer Laurence Fishburne (Boyz n the Hood, The Matrix, What’s Love Got to Do with It); US actor and director Jodie Foster, who is being honored for her contribution to world cinema and is a two-time Best Actress Oscar winner (The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs); Indian director, screenwriter, and producer Karan Johar, a major figure in Bollywood who has made films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... which he famously admitted to having written at a Starbucks in London; Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the institution that awards the Oscars; Lebanese director and actor Nadine Labaki, winner of the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes for Capernaum and the woman who is singlehandedly responsible for having turned me onto Arab cinema; Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, winner of several awards at Cannes, notably for Bacurau and The Secret Agent, this year’s Brazilian submissions to the Oscars; Iranian director Jafar Panahi, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for The Circle, the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Taxi Tehran, and the Palme d'or at Cannes for It Was Just a Simple Accident — the French submission to the Oscar race this year; French actor Tahar Rahim, César Award winner for Best Actor for A Prophet; and mega Egyptian star, actor Yousra, iconic diva of Arab cinema.
Two panel Conversations punctuate this year’s edition. The first brings together Franco-Belgian actor Virginie Efira, who won the César Award for Best Actress for her performance in Revoir Paris, and Italo-French actor and singer Chiara Mastroianni (the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni, who are part of our history of cinema!) and who took the Un Certain Regard Best Actress Award at Cannes for her turn in Chambre 212, in a discussion about the acting profession, freedom in roles, and how cinema sheds light on our relationship with the world.
The second, titled ‘Filming Memory: Between Collective History and the Intimate’, presents a discussion between directors Asmae El Moudir, winner of the Un Certain Regard Best Director Award at Cannes and the Étoile d’or at Marrakech for The Mother of All Lies, and Karima Saïdi (A Way Home) about how Moroccan documentaries explore memory, exile, and social change through personal narratives.
For more information, check out the festival’s website.