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Luca Guadagnino has been appointed jury president at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, replacing previously announced Thomas Vinterberg who has cancelled his attendance for family reasons.
Guadagnino will be joined by The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi, Indian director Zoya Akhtar, American actor Patricia Arquette, Belgian actor Virginie Efira, Australian actor Jacob Elordi, British-American actor Andrew Garfield, Moroccan actor Nadia Kounda, and Argentine director Santiago Mitre.
Guadagnino arrives at the festival fresh from the launch of Queer starring Daniel Craig, which follows other acclaimed films such as Call Me By Your Name and Challengers.
The Italian director talked of long ties with the city of Marrakech and its festival.
“I will never forget the first time I arrived in Marrakech: it must’ve been more than 20 years ago, when I was a guest of my friend Valentina Cervi, who was sitting on the jury of the short film competition. I had never been to Morocco before but my Algeri an mother grew up there and moved to Casablanca at the age of five,” he recalled.
The first time I landed in the great city of Marrakech, it was because of this amazing festival and since then for me the City and Cinema are indissolubly connected. My Arab DNA is really, really engraved in the amazing powers of the festival of Marrakech and it is a tremendous honor to lead a wonderful jury for the 21st edition,” he added.
The jury will award the 21st edition’s Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in competition, following last year’s winner, Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies , decided by a jury chaired by Jessica Chastain.
The festival runs from November 29 to December 7.
