Adopted at the end of 2024, a draft law on the film industry – which will also affect the Centre cinématographique marocain – aims to modernise the secto
Initiated by the Minister of Culture, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, the new law would rejuvenate the film industry. As Mohamed Khouna, the chair of the CCM’s Commission to Support Cinema Digitization and Modernisation explains in L’Opinion, “the new text marks an essential modernization to adapt the cinema ecosystem to today’s realities…..This law will bring transparency to the entire ecosystem. It will also help investors, especially new ones, to see the Kingdom in a different and more attractive light.”
However, one article of this proposed law is of particular concern to those distributors who also manage cinemas, in particular the Megarama group. Article 23 prohibits any film distribution company from also operating cinemas – or even holding shares in a cinema operating company.
The French company Megarama has been managing cinemas and distributing films in Morocco for almost 20 years while also running 48 cinemas and 35% of the distribution within the country, representing 82% of the market. Consequently its president and founder, Jean-Pierre Lemoine, views this reform very negatively.
Interviewed by Le Monde, he expressed his concern: “We arrived in Morocco more than twenty years ago, we built the first multiplex in Africa in Casablanca. I have invested millions of euros here, so if we are going to work in a climate of distrust, I prefer to sell.” However, the defenders of the proposed law say it will rebalance the industry. As Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, who is also CEO of the French company Facility Event, explains, “This is not a punishment for Megarama or other dominant players. It is a necessary response to restore fairness in an unbalanced ecosystem.” However, this imbalance is still being discussed by the companies concerned, who have requested the article be withdrawn – so far unsuccessfully.
