San Francisco Frontiers - 'Creating connections': Arab, African filmmakers gather at Morocco workshops

Held during the Marrakech International Film Festival, the Atlas Workshops brought together filmmakers from 13 countries working on projects at various stages of development.

"Having it (the workshops) in Africa makes a lot of sense," said Babatunde Apalowo, a 38-year-old Nigerian director working on his second feature film, which explores the social pressures shaping a Nigerian couple's lives.

"This is probably the only way to really develop local talents," he added.

The five-day programme included one-on-one consultations and group sessions with international industry mentors.

"This initiative fills a critical gap for filmmakers from Africa and the Arab world, who often lack access to platforms of this calibre," said Remi Bonhomme, the project's art director.

Since the programme's launch in 2018, he said, the workshops have supported 152 projects, including 60 from Morocco.

In 2024, six films that had taken part in the sessions were selected for the Berlinale, including Tunisian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur's "Who Do I Belong To?", which competed in the festival's main section.

Other projects have premiered at festivals in Cannes, Venice and Locarno.

Danish screenwriter Valeria Richter, who led group sessions on audience design, said "bringing people together and creating connections is at the heart of this programme".

This collaborative spirit is what drew filmmakers like Senegalese Moly Kane to the workshops.

"Hearing from other filmmakers and experts gives you a fresh perspective on your project," he said. "It's a rare opportunity in Africa."

He added that he hoped to win one of the workshops' four prizes of up to $31,000.

This year participants were offered a chance to pitch projects to distributors from Europe, including France, Italy, Greece and the UK.

Moroccan filmmaker Mohamed El Badaoui, 45, used the event to seek partners for "Fatwa", a Spanish-Moroccan co-production in its early stages.

"It's a chance to have access to so many professionals and to have the possibility of developing your project," he said.

Apalowo agreed that the workshop was a "very good opportunity of introducing one's project to the world".

His first feature, "All the Colours of the World are Between Black and White", won a Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2023 for its exploration of LGBTQ+ themes.

C.Williams--SFF