China is the guest of honor at the 23rd International Mediterranean Film Festival which opened in Morocco on March 25. There are several movies from China that are being exhibited at the festival that runs until April 2.
Presenting China Experience to Wider Audience
In selecting China as the festival’s guest of honor, Ahmed El Housni, festival director, said that in recent years, Chinese filmmaking had distinguished itself as one of the world’s leader in movie production. By making China the guest of honor, the festival targets to present the experience to a wider audience in Morocco, Xinhua News Agency reported.
“Mojin: The Lost Legend” by Wu Ershan is among the Chinese movies participating in the film festival. Also being shown are “Operation Mekong” by Dante Lam, “The Master” by Xu Haofeng and “The Dead End” by Cao Baoping.
Past editions of the film festival included nations that are not geographically part of the Mediterranean region such as Iran, Chile and Mexico whose movies were showcased. There are 24 movies competing in the film festival, 15 are from Mediterranean counties. Half of the movies are feature films and the other half are documentary films.
The Jury
The best feature movie would be awarded the Grand Prix Tamouda d’or. The best documentary film would receive the Tetouan Grand Prix award. To determine the winners is a jury which Yousry Nasrallah, an Egyptian director, heads for the feature movies, while for the documentary films, Thomas Bauer, French screen writer, presides.
The festival is known for awarding and showing excellent movies such as “You Got A Problem” by Broadway actor-turned-director Charles Mandracchia which was the winner of the Best Animated Short Film Category at MEDFF in 2016. Since then, it has won awards also in film festivals in Los Angeles and Italy, Broadway World reported.
Housni added that friendly bilateral relationship is enhanced whenever the festival honors a nation. He pointed out that in recent years, ties between Morocco and China saw significant economic and cultural progress.