Hiam Abbass, Abderrahmane Sissako, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Producer Marie-Ange Luciani Join Jeff Nichols as Atlas Workshops Mentors
Hiam Abbass (“Succession”), Abderrahmane Sissako (“Black Tea”), Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”), Adam Bessa (“Ghost Trail”), Yumna Marwan (“The Veil”) and “Anatomy of a Fall” producer Marie-Ange Luciani will join “The Bikeriders” director Jeff Nichols as mentors at this year’s Atlas Workshops.
Running from Dec. 1 – 5 as part of the Marrakech Film Festival, this seventh edition will more than double in duration, welcoming the filmmakers and producers behind 27 projects for an extra day of in-person workshops after four days of online session earlier this month. By the time the filmmakers hit the ground for pitches in Marrakech, they have benefited from co-production panels, acquisition and distribution trend analysis, green production coaching and presentations from international film funds and A-list festivals.
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“We’re creating a new dynamic,” says Atlas Workshops director Hédi Zardi. “In order to assist and make known a young generation – to get them into festivals and onto the world stage – we have to support them at every level and be there for them at different steps.”
As part of this year’s expanded program, the workshops will welcome 32 industry consultants and speakers, many of them pulled from Marrakech invitees.
“We’ve more than doubled the amount of consultants,” says Zardi. “Because we want to have greater porosity with the overall festival, allowing more talent to participate. These are all producers and directors and actors who have been through the same journey, and who can hopefully act as inspiration.”
This edition will also place a new emphasis on the creative process, hosting acting labs with acclaimed stars in to order help the filmmakers better hone their characters and dialogue while connecting attendees with DPs and VFX supervisors for labs dedicated to visual dynamics and aesthetic approaches.
“These aren’t just masterclasses,” says Zardi. “We’re adding a new day for small group working labs because developing a project isn’t just limited to production and script strategy — it also includes characters, cameras, and special effects, and we really aspire to offer something more complete.”
That more holistic overview includes audience design sessions for projects in development and marketing workshops for titles in post.
“Audience design means reflecting on why we’re making the film, who the target audience is, and how we want to tell the story,” Zardi explains. “Considering the intended audience right from an early stage is crucial, as it helps align the project with potential real-life viewers. And for those in post-production, we’ve added a post-design session to provide filmmakers with the right tools and strategies to better promote their work.”
Zardi and Marrakech artistic director Remi Bonhomme have also invited two-dozen international distributors as much to spur acquisition as to give workshop participants a more in-depth understanding of the landscape.
“Whereas before we only evoked questions of circulation and distribution in a theoretical way,” says Zardi. “Now we really wanted to anchor that thinking in the current market situation so to make it much more concrete.”
Within the festival landscape, Atlas alumni are on a truly banner run.
After Atlas supported films “The Mother of All Lies,” “Hounds” and “Bye Bye Tiberias” took home the top prizes at the 2023 Marrakech Film Festival — all of them arriving on the festival stage following premieres in Cannes and Venice — the industry program can now boast a whopping 12 workshop alumni in this year’s Marrakech lineup. Among them are Meryam Joobeur’s “Who Do I Belong To” and Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise” — the two winners of last year’s post-production prizes that would go on to respective premieres in Berlin and Cannes.
Looking over this latest crop, Zardi believes that similar fortune will favor the bold.
“These are all strong human journeys filled with empathy and powered by great storytelling,” he says. “Each story is cinematic and impactful, spanning different genres but delivering bold and meaningful messages. I think attendees will be completely absorbed by each pitch, because all of these projects are larger than life.”
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