Shortly before the Tangier National Film Festival closed, the Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM) unveiled last year’s figures for film production in Morocco.
The amount spent by international productions is clearly evolving. Investment by foreign feature films increased by 13.47% while there was also very strong growth for short films, with an increase of 313.24%. Combining all forms, the total increased by 47.18% between 2017 and 2018. The highest budgets were for series: taken together they total MAD 374, 878, 465 (€34,477, 572), an evolution 102.16% compared to 2017. For feature films, the overall investment is MAD 322,098,355 (€29,624,458). In 2018, 16 series and 17 feature films were shot on Moroccan soil.
Concerning domestic productions, Morocco hosted 30 feature film shoots, 35 television series, and 18 TV films. 111 short films and 163 commercials also took advantage of the country’s landscapes. 691 filming authorizations were issued for Moroccan productions and 624 for foreign productions. Finally, many Moroccan feature films have benefited from the CCM’s aid fund, such as Nabil Ayouch’s Positive School and Faouzi Bensaidi’s Deserts.
As far as box office is concerned, Moroccan films are firmly in the lead by claiming the top three places: Driss Mrini’s Lahnech, Abdellah Ferkous’ Korsa and Nabil Ayouch’s Razzia. These are followed by two American films: Christophe McQuarrie’s Mission Impossible Fallout and David Leitch’s Deadpool 2. During the year 1,562,350 spectators went to see a film — 1,477,891 in a cinema, 84,459 in an open-air movie theatre. Thus box-office takings totalled MAD 73,124,217 million (€6,721,578), a 6.7% decrease on 2017. Morocco has 30 cinemas in its territory, with 65 screens.
Morocco’s domestic production has made its mark at several foreign film events. 30 Moroccan films have won awards at different festivals — for example Meryem Ben M’Barek’s Sofia, which won Best Screenplay in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the award for Best First Film at the Carthage Film Days in Tunisia. .
Sources: communiqué http://www.ccm.ma/actualite-1614, https://www.infomediaire.net/cinema-les-tournages-rapportent-65-mdh-au-maroc/
