Marrakech Winners Revealed

Erige Sehiri’s “Promised Sky” won top honors at the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, capping a lively year for the Moroccan event, marked by swelling audiences and deeper integration into the global awards circuit.

Heralded by Variety’s Tomris Laffly as “a unique drama about marginalized African immigrant women fighting for their dignity and place not in Europe… but on their own continent,” the film follows four generations of Ivorian immigrant women who navigate moments of support, tension and displacement. Their already complex bonds grow ever more strained in a country of entrenched social and economic divides.

“As a Tunisian woman myself, I’m deeply frustrated to see that we can’t welcome migrants with dignity, even though we’re from a country with such a wide diaspora,” Sehiri said. “We act as if we weren’t all living on the same continent, as if we weren’t all Africans.”

The film opened this year’s Un Certain Regard, ahead of standout showings in London, Zurich and Lugano. Its top prize in Marrakech further strengthens the festival’s reputation as a key launchpad where first and second features can build momentum, widen their exposure and connect emerging auteurs with some of the most influential figures in world cinema.

The jury — led by director Bong Joon-ho and joined by Jenna Ortega, Anya Taylor-Joy, Julia Ducournau, Celine Song, Karim Aïnouz, Hakim Belabbes and Payman Maadi — jointly awarded Jihan K’s “My Father and Qaddafi” and Vladlena Sandu’s “Memory” with the aptly named Jury Prize. They also singled out the absurdist war comedy “Straight Circle,” giving actors Luke Tittensor and Elliott Tittensor a special mention and honoring filmmaker Oscar Hudson with the festival’s directing trophy.

“My Father’s Shadow” and “Promised Land” leads Sope Dirisu and Debora Lobe Naney…