HRH Prince Moulay Rachid crowns city of Marrakech

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Marrakech, December 1, 2006 – Marrakech has opened its door to the sixth annual International Film Festival spearheaded by His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid.

The nine days long festival kicked off Friday with a 7:00 p.m. opening ceremony in the Ministers Room in Marrakech. Inducing into the international spotlight with several of film industry insiders in attendance, this event has become one of the top destinations.

World cinema stars in the opening ceremony showed unity for the festival and the art of film.

Renowned Polish director, Roman Polanski, who chairs this edition jury, in the opening ceremonial highlighted the gratitude to HRH Prince Moulay Rachid for his bigheartedness and thoughtfulness.On the first night, the festival paid tribute to Arab cinema, namely to the Moroccan actor Mohamed Majd and Egyptian director Tawfiq Salah for their works and love for the seventh art. Screening the latest masterpiece of Martin Scorsese, “the Departed”, also marked the opening ceremony.

Running through December 1-9, the Marrakech International Film Festival features 120 screenings of 22 domestic and foreign films, plus pays tribute to Italian cinema, Indian cinema through its stars Ajay and Kajol Devgan, to American actress Suzan Sarandon and Chinese director and scriptwriter Jia Zhang-Ke.

The most exciting highlight of the festival is always annual dinner given by His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid.

With the upper hand, His Royal Highness inclines to the festival as a model for how other communities can use film festivals to propel money into the local economy.