Now in its seventh edition, the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops are headed for the second time by Hédi Zardi, the founder and former co-head of Luxbox. Cineuropa sat down with Zardi to look at fresh changes in the festival’s industry programme, which includes a co-production market, mentorship opportunities and more during its five-day run.

Cineuropa: Could you give us an overview of this year’s Atlas Workshops and its new developments?
Hédi Zardi: The idea of the festival is also to prepare the upcoming generation from the region. It's very mandatory now to prepare rising, up-and-coming talent and up-and-coming films. We have many one-on-one meetings where we’re inviting producers, distributors, sales agents and festival programmers to request meetings in order to allow films to find partners. This seventh edition is marked by a great deal of development. This year, we added a programme called Atlas Station, which is a training programme focused on young Moroccans, both directors and producers. They are selected not for one project in particular, but rather [based on] their profile, and it's a training programme to enhance their expertise, and bring them more tools and more knowledge to develop their career. Last year, we also launched the Atlas Distribution Award as a form of support for the release of Moroccan, Arabic and African films selected at the festival, and it comprises backing for their distribution in these territories.

How would you characterise the selection of projects this year?
We had projects from 12 or 13 territories. They were all first, second or third features, but the majority were first features. We had powerful stories – what I felt this year was that the filmmakers had the ability to absorb their reality. Some of them came from regions of war, etc, but I was very impressed – especially by the films in post-production – by how they incorporated the reality that they wanted to share through cinematic language. It’s not the raw testimony of what’s happening now; they absorb the experience and trauma of what’s happening through cinematic grammar and genres. So, it’s very interesting to proceed like this.

What have been some of the highlights from this year’s workshops?
[Participants] looked at acquisition and distribution trends through four focuses, one for Arab territories. We organised a specific overview of France because it’s a strong territory for arthouse cinema. We had one on sales agents to reflect the reality of the market and how they work. I brought bigger sales agents as well as more independent ones, and we had a special case study on how Bye Bye Tiberias [+lee también:
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Is there a particular expansion that you’re excited about?
We had an additional day, which was the Creative Lab. Films in development had two hours for script development consultation and two hours for production strategy. For films in post-production, they had a two-hour editing session, and two hours after that for music and sales. So, I added the creative aspect. The group is then split: for projects in development, they have the acting lab intended for directors learning how to be better directors – they look at how actors can help them develop a character and how the actor needs to embody a character. For projects in post-production, they have a session about audience design – what is the audience that I can target, and how can I reach this audience? They have a long session for poster design as well.

Looking to the future, what would you like to bring to the workshops?
I think we have to see with the new session. But we will talk to [the participants] afterwards to see how the workshops echo their process. Is it deeply anchored now in their way of working, or is it too superficial? I need feedback. What I feel is that the Creative Lab is very important to help them with their creativity, not only with the process on paper. I’m already thinking about next year, but it’s an ongoing process.