Marrakech Film Festival: Alan Rickman, Melanie Laurent Join Jury

Alan Rickman and directors Bertrand Bonello and Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or in 2012, are set to join jury president Isabelle Huppert at the Marrakech International Film Festival in December.

Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier (Serena), French actress Melanie Laurent (Inglorlious Basterds), Indian director Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox), Italian director Mario Martone (We Believed) and Moroccan director Moumen Smihi (44 Bedtime Stories) will round out the panel.

Daniel Barber’s Civil War drama The Keeping Room, starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld and Sam Worthington, and Oscar-nominated editor Saar Klein’s directorial debut Things People Do will be among the competition films. 

The Theory of Everything will be the opening night film, with J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year closing the festival. Jessica Chastain is scheduled to attend the festival in support of the latter title.

As previously announced, Jeremy Irons and Viggo Mortensen will be attending the festival for career tributes. Die Hard With a Vengeance will also have a special public screening in the outdoor square Place Jemaa El Fna, with Irons, who played the villain in the 1995 film, attending.

The Cinecoles jury for the short film competition will include director Zoe Cassavestes, Moroccan actor Driss Roukhe, Italian actress Elisa Sednaoui, French actress Ana Girardot, French actor Gaspard Ulliel and jury president Abderrahmane Sissako.

The complete list of competition films:

The Blue Elephant, Marwan Hamed (Egypt)

Chigasaki Story, Takuya Misawa (Japan)

Chrieg, Simon Jaquemet (Switzerland)

Corrections Class, Ivan I. Tverdovsk (Russia)

Everything We Loved, Max Currie (New Zealand)

The Keeping Room, Daniel Barber (U.S.)

Labor of Love, Aditya Vikram Sensupta (India)

The Last Hammer Blow, Alix Delaporte (France)

Mirage, Sczabolcs Hajdu (Hungary, Solvenia)

Nabat, Elchin Musaoglu (Azerbaijan)

No One’s Child, Vuk Rsumavic (Serbia)

L’Orchestre des Aveugles, Mohamed Mouftakir (Morocco, France)

Red Rose, Sepideh Farsi (France, Germany, Iran)

The Sea Fog, Shim Sung-bo (South Korea)

Things People Do, Saar Klein (U.S.)