Acclaimed Moroccan Directors
This is a list of some of the nationally acclaimed Moroccan directors.
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- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Nabil Ayouch works and lives in Casablanca and is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, the Académie des Césars and the Arab Film Academy. Nabil Ayouch is a director, writer, producer and is the founder of Ali n' Production, the main film and TV shows production company in Morocco.
In 1997, Nabil Ayouch directed his first feature film, Mektoub (1997) which, like Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000) represented Morocco at the Oscars. Next came Une minute de soleil en moins (2002) and Whatever Lola Wants (2007), produced by Pathé.
After directing several live shows such as the opening of Morocco Time in France at the Château de Versailles in 1999, he conceived and staged the closing show of the World Economic Forum in Davos later in 2009.
In 2011, he directed his first feature-length documentary, My Land (2011) which he shot in the Middle East. In 2012, he made Horses of God (2012). The film, based on the May 16, 2003, bombings in Casablanca, was selected in the official selection - Un Certain Regard, at the Cannes Film Festival and received the François Chalais Award. It represented Morocco at the Oscars and won 26 international awards.
In May 2015, his next film Much Loved (2015) was selected at the Cannes Film Festival, at the Directors' Fortnight. In September, it won the Valois d'Or and the Valois for Best Actress at Angoulême. Banned in Morocco, "Much Loved" was released in about twenty countries and was acquired by Netflix for the US and several other countries. It collected 12 international awards and reached 280,000 admissions in France, the biggest success ever for a Moroccan film.
In 2016, Nabil Ayouch made Razzia (2017). The film, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, won a dozen international awards. It was widely sold around the world, including in the US where it was distributed by Amazon.
In 2019, Nabil Ayouch produced the film Adam (2019), first feature film by Maryam Touzani, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard). The film, sold in 20 countries, won 23 awards and was both a public and critical success.
In 2021, Nabil Ayouch directed Casablanca Beats (2021). The film, which deals with the youth of the suburbs of Casablanca and with Hip Hop as a means of expression, was presented in world premiere in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival 2021, the first time for a Moroccan film.
In 2023, he produced The Blue Caftan (2022) by Maryam Touzani. Selected at the Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard, it won the FRIPESCI Prize. The film, representing Morocco at the Oscars, was shortlisted among the 15 best foreign films, the first time ever for Morocco. The film won more than 50 awards around the world. Sold in about thirty territories, it recorded more than 500,000 international admissions, a record for a Moroccan film.
In 2024, Nabil Ayouch will release Everybody Loves Touda (2024) his next film.
Beyond his films, Nabil Ayouch contributes, through Ali n' Productions, which he created in 1999, to energize the Moroccan cinematic landscape by supporting young talents.
Through the creation of the "Film Industry," he produced between 2005 and 2010, 40 genre films, contributing to the creation of a true film industry that would reveal and train talents in all areas of the film industry.
In 2006, he launched the Meda Films Development - with the support of the European Union and the Marrakech International Film Festival Foundation - a structure to accompany producers and screenwriters from the ten countries of the southern Mediterranean shore in the development phase of their films.
Very active in the socio-cultural field, Nabil Ayouch opened in 2014 through the Ali Zaoua Foundation - which he created and presides over - the Cultural Center "Les étoiles de Sidi Moumen," intended for young people in the peripheral neighborhood of Sidi Moumen from which the kamikazes who committed the May 16, 2003, bombings in Casablanca and who inspired "Les Chevaux de Dieu" came. To date, more than 1,000 children and teenagers are enrolled and learn all forms of artistic expression. This was followed by a second Cultural Center in Tangier in 2016, a third in Agadir in 2019, a fourth in Fez in 2020, and finally a fifth center in Marrakech in 2021.
In November 2014, the Louvre Museum paid tribute to Nabil Ayouch by offering him a carte blanche for 3 days during which a large part of his work was shown to the Parisian public.
In 2015, Nabil Ayouch exhibited in Paris and Casablanca a series of photographs that explore this part of society "On the margins" that haunts him and crosses his artistic work. In 2022, he signed a second series of photos "Aporia" which was exhibited in Casablanca.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Faouzi Bensaïdi was born on 14 March 1967 in Meknes, Morocco. He is an actor and director, known for Mille mois (2003), Baya Al Maut (2011) and Volubilis (2017).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Hassan Benjelloun was born in 1950 in Morocco. He is a director and producer, known for For the Cause (2019), Les amis d'hier (1998) and Où vas-tu Moshé? (2007).- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Mostafa Derkaoui is known for Cinders of the Vineyard (1976), Titre provisoire (1984) and Les amours de Haj El Mokhtar Soldi (2001).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Born on September 1st, 1951 in Tetouan. Mohamed Ismail was an awarded Moroccan director and producer. In 1970, he began studying law in Rabat. Then in 1974, he joined the Moroccan National Broadcasting and Television Company where he produced several films, documentaries, theatrical evenings and variety shows. He also directed several commercials and institutional films. In 2015, he was a member of the jury of the competition "Horizons of Arab Cinema" at the 37th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival.
Mohamed Ismail directed six feature films for cinema release, among them "Et Après...", a film about illegal sub-Saharan immigration from Morocco to Spain which won many international prizes.
He died in his hometown, Tetouan, on March 20, 2021, after a long illness.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Nabil Lahlou (also Nabyl) is one of the most influential and controversial Moroccan directors who is famous for his surrealist cinematographic style. He studied theater in Paris at Académie du Théâtre de la Rue Blanche and L'Ecole Charles Dullin. He is particularly known for movies such as: Al Kanfoudi (1978) and Le Gouverneur General de L ile Chakerbakerben (1980).- Director
- Writer
Hamid Benani was born in 1940 in Meknes, Morocco. He is a director and writer, known for L'enfant cheikh (2012), La prière de l'absent (1995) and Wechma (1971).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Farida Benlyazid was born in 1948 in Tanger, Morocco. She is a director and writer, known for Keïd Ensa (1999), The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni (2005) and Frontieras (2013).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Jillali Ferhati is known for The Beach of Lost Children (1991), Mémoire en détention (2004) and At Dawn (2010).- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Casting Director
Ahmed Boulane was born in Salé, Morocco. He was expelled from school three times, and was only 16 when they threw him out for good. However, this didn't stop him from learning to speak four languages fluently.
Boulane was an actor with the Moroccan National Theater Company and the national Moroccan radio theater troupe from 1974 to 1977. His first job in the cinema was with Nabyl Lahlou in a wacky Moroccan movie, "Al-Kanfoudi". He was hired to play the part of a young, unemployed man, but Boulane found it impossible to leave the set once he had finished being an actor. He tried his hand at being a boom operator and grip (both of these too physically strenuous for him), and eventually finished the film as a floor assistant.
But Ahmed Boulane had been bitten by the bug, a passion that has been the motor for a rich and varied career in cinema and television as actor, location manager, assistant director, casting director, and awarded screenwriter/director/producer. During the past 40 years he has worked on more than 50 feature films and documentaries and more than a hundred commercials, both Moroccan and international. The names of Giuliano Montaldo, Alan Pakula, Carlo Di Palma, Phillipe de Broca, Jean Delannoy, Nicholas Roeg, and William Friedkin appear on his long C.V.
During the mid-90s he began to feel restless. He decided to add a nationality; he became an Irish citizen in 1995. And he decided he needed to direct his own projects. The result... in 1996 he created his production company, Boulane-O'Bryne Production (BO'B Prod), to produce "Voyage dans le Passé" ("Past Recollections") and "Ali, Rabiaa et les autres" ("Ali, Rabiaa and the Others"), two films that earned him both critical acclaim and the respect of the public.
His film "Les anges de Satan" ("The Satanic Angels") was released in March, 2007. The film is based on a true story: the controversial arrest of fourteen young Moroccan hard rock musicians falsely accused of adhering to Satanism.
His feature film "Le retour du fils" ("The Return of the Son") was selected as "Coup de coeur" in the 12th Marrakech International Film Festival in 2012.
His latest film "La Isla" ("The Island"), a political comedy in co-production between Morocco and Spain, was selected as "Coup de coeur" in the 15th Marrakech International Film Festival in 2015 and won the best comedy award in a festival in Cordoba, Columbia.
In 2019 he wrote his autobiography "Ma vie est belle", translated into English "What a Beautiful Life".- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Hakim Noury is known for L'Enfance Volée (1994), Le bout du monde (2011) and Elle est diabétique et hypertendue et elle refuse de crever (1999).- Director
- Writer
Saâd Chraïbi was born in 1952 in Fes, Morocco. Saâd is a director and writer, known for Nissa... wa nissa (1999), Atash (2001) and Jail Girl (2004).- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi is known for À la recherche du mari de ma femme (1992), Badis (1989) and Fatema, La Sultane Inoubliable (2022).- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Ahmed El Maanouni is a screenwriter, film director, cinematographer, actor and producer born in Casablanca. His films include one of the most emblematic title of Moroccan cinema Alyam Alyam (1978), first Moroccan film to be selected in Cannes Film Festival and winner of the Grand Prize at the Mannheim film festival. He caught international attention when his film Trances (Al Hal) was honored and presented by Martin Scorsese at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival to inaugurate the World Cinema Foundation. His film Burned Hearts (Les Coeurs Brûlés) (2007) won the Grand Prize at the National Film festival. His documentary films consistently interrogate colonial history and its impact on Moroccan memory. In 2007 he has been honored with the title of Officier of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France.- Farida Bourquia is known for Al Hay Al Khalfi (2006), Zaynab, la rose d'Aghmat (2014) and Deux femmes sur la route (2007).
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Daoud Aoulad-Syad was born on 14 April 1953 in Marrakech, Morocco. He is a director and writer, known for Aoud rih (2001), The Mosk (2010) and Bye-Bye Souirty (1998).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Narjiss Nejjar is known for Les yeux secs (2003), L'amante du rif (2011) and Wake Up Morocco (2006).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Nour Eddine Lakhmari was born on 15 February 1964 in Safi, Morocco. He is a director and writer, known for Casanegra (2008), Zero (2012) and Burnout (2017).