This year’s Atlas Workshops, which unspooled from 1-5 December within the seventh edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, were rounded off by the crowning of the winners of the event. The workshops gave out nine awards with cash equivalents totalling €126,000, with a wide spread of countries represented through the prizewinners.

This year’s edition brought together 340 professionals with 17 projects at various stages of production vying for development and post-production awards. Thirty-two experts and consultants provided filmmakers with comprehensive guidance across all areas of the creative process. US filmmaker Jeff Nichols served as the patron for the workshops, offering mentorship through this year’s expanded five-day framework. The Atlas Workshops co-production market also organised a record number of over 510 meetings with participating professionals.

The Atlas Workshops have previously been the springboards for lauded films such as Meryam Joobeur's Who Do I Belong To [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Meryam Joobeur
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scheda film]. Joobeur’s and Harawe’s films secured the first- and second-place Post-production Prizes at last year’s edition (see the news). Other previous Atlas-supported works include Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah a Boy [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
scheda film], which both secured prizes during the 2022 workshops.

This year, the jury for projects in development consisted of Yasmine Benkiran (filmmaker and screenwriter), Philippe Bober (producer, Coproduction Office) and Dora Bouchoucha (producer, Nomadis Images). This jury awarded its top Post-production Prize (€25,000) to Aisha Can’t Fly Away (Egypt/Sudan/Tunisia/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Germany), directed by Morad Mostafa and produced by Sawsan Yusuf. Aisha Can't Fly Away, which has been picked up by Mad Solutions for its international sales, follows the eponymous 26-year-old Sudanese woman who lives and works in a Cairo neighbourhood where the dynamics of the community are defined by the gangs that control the area. Abdallah Al Khatib’s Chronicles from the Siege (France/Palestine/Algeria), produced by Georges Schoucair, took home the next Post-production Prize of €20,000.

The jury for films in production or post-production was composed of Giona Nazzaro (artistic director, Locarno Film Festival), Malika Rabahallah (programmer and director, Filmfest Hamburg) and Grégoire Melin (international sales agent, Kinology). The jury awarded its top Development Prize of €30,000 to Fabien Dao’s Ouagadougou-set Princesse Téné (Burkina Faso), produced by Moustapha Sawadogo, while the second prize of €20,000 went to Linda Lô’s Lucky Girl (France/Senegal), produced by Didar Domehri.

The ArteKino International Prize, presented by ARTE, was given to the project in development Alicante (France/Algeria) by Bye Bye Tiberias [+leggi anche:
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The full list of Atlas Workshops winners is as follows:

Atlas Post-production Prizes

€25,000
Aisha Can’t Fly Away – Morad Mostafa (Egypt/Sudan/Tunisia/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Germany)
Production: Sawsan Yusuf, Bonanza Films, Film Clinic

€20,000
Chronicles from the Siege - Abdallah Al Khatib (France/Palestine/Algeria)
Production: Salah Issaad, Evidence Film, Blue Train Films

€10,000
It's a Sad and Beautiful World - Cyril Aris (Lebanon/USA/Germany/Saudi Arabia)
Production: Georges Schoucair, Abbout Productions, Reynard Films

€5,000
Bardi - Tala Hadid (Morocco/USA/France)
Production: Abdelmonime El Jarib, Kairoi Films, Louverture Films, Ciné-sud Promotion

Atlas Development Prizes

€30,000
Princesse Téné - Fabien Dao (Burkina Faso)
Production: Moustapha Sawadogo, Future Films

€20,000
Lucky Girl - Linda Lô (France/Senegal)
Production: Didar Domehri, Maneki Films

€5,000 (ex-aequo)
Samir, the Accidental Spy - Charlotte Rabate (Syria/France)
Production: Coralie Dias, Inter Spinas Films

Ici Repose - Moly Kane (France/Senegal)
Production: Lionel Massol, Pauline Seigland, Ngagne Sankhe, Films Grand Huit, Babubu Films

ArteKino International Prize
Alicante - Lina Soualem (France/Algeria)
Production: Omar El Kadi, Nadi Turincev, Easy Riders Films