Marrakech International Film Festival opens with a comedy by Jesse Eisenberg

The 23rd edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, scheduled from November 20 to 28, 2026, will open with the comedy ‘The Debut’, directed by Jesse Eisenberg, according to Screen Daily.

The festival presents a lineup of 76 films from 39 countries, including 10 world premieres. These include the hybrid documentary-fiction ‘Alkebulan’, by Moroccan director Yassine Marco Marroccu, and ‘Cairo Shadows’, by French-Egyptian-Palestinian brothers Rani and Salem Massalha.

The news currently comes from a single source (Screen Daily); no independent confirmation is available at this time regarding further details of the program.

The choice to open with a film directed by an American actor and director, at a festival featuring works in competition from 39 different countries, confirms the international vocation of the Moroccan event, which in its world premieres blends North African productions and European co-productions with Middle Eastern roots. The ten world premieres represent roughly one-eighth of the overall program announced for the 2026 edition.

The profile of the world premieres chosen for this edition also signals specific attention to narratives that cross multiple national identities: ‘Alkebulan’ works on the border between documentary and fiction to portray the African continent, while ‘Cairo Shadows’ stems from the collaboration between two brothers with French, Egyptian and Palestinian roots. This composition of the program, together with the fact that the 76 selected titles come from 39 different countries, places Marrakech among the festivals aiming to represent broad geographic plurality rather than an editorial line centered on a single cinematic area. The festival runs over nine days, from November 20 to 28, 2026.