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Important Event: Marrakech International Film Festival

Cinema history

From the first shoots to new cinemas: the history, heritage and latest developments of cinema in Morocco.

Key dates

A filming location since the late 19th century, Morocco built its own cinema after independence, supported by the Centre cinématographique marocain, film clubs and a generation of auteurs.

Cinemas were long meeting places at the heart of cities. The country had about 245 in the late 1980s. Many have since closed, and restorations and new projects are now writing the next chapter of this history.

  1. 1897 Louis Lumière films Le Chevrier marocain, cited as the first film shot in Morocco.
  2. 1919 Mektoub, by Pinchon and Quintin, is considered the first major fiction film shot in Morocco.
  3. 1929 The Rialto is completed in Casablanca, in the era of large Art Deco cinemas.
  4. 1944 The Centre cinématographique marocain is created and studios open in Rabat.
  5. 1952 Orson Welles’s Othello, shot in Morocco, wins the Grand Prix at Cannes under the Moroccan flag.
  6. 1958 Mohamed Osfour makes Le Fils maudit, the first fiction feature of independent Morocco.
  7. 1968 Tangier hosts Morocco’s first Mediterranean Film Festival.
  8. 1970 Wechma, by Hamid Bénani, becomes a reference point for Moroccan auteur cinema.
  9. 1982 The first National Film Festival is held in Rabat. Farida Bourquia directs Al-Jamra.
  10. 2001 The Marrakech International Film Festival is created.
  11. 2007 The Cinémathèque de Tanger opens in the restored Cinema Rif.
  12. 2013 Cinema Renaissance reopens in Rabat, renovated by Fondation Hiba.
  13. 2025 Morocco has 87 active screens and 2.19 million admissions.
  14. 2026 The CCM grants 12.875 million dirhams to create and modernise cinemas.
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