Award Ceremony — Festival International du film de Marrakech 2013

2013 FESTIVAL

Editorial of His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid

The 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival eloquently confirms the values that govern the creation of this annual homage to cinema.

Universality is more present than ever this year, with a retrospective dedicated to Scandinavian cinema that will allow us to immerse ourselves in some exceptional oeuvres from the Northern European imagination. Similarly, the talents and diversity of the Jury, presided over this year by Martin Scorsese, bear witness to the vision and international perspective of our festival.

Furthermore, the Festival will include some exceptional masterclasses hosted by Abbas Kiarostami, James Gray, Nicolas Winding Refn and Bruno Dumont, that will allow movie lovers to share the films and thoughts of some of our greatest directors as well as philosopher Régis Debray. This spirit of openness towards the world is further underscored by the films of the Official Selection, that will transport us through those emotions and realities that make cinema a global art form that helps us better understand one another.

Continuing with tradition, the 2013 Marrakech International Film Festival will also serve the younger generation, with our student filmmakers presenting their first short films in the Cinécoles Competition.

This celebration, which for nine days will illuminate the city of Marrakech, is also one for the blind and partially-sighted. For the fifth consecutive year, we will be sharing the beauty and magic of cinema through an audio-description service.

Together, let us enjoy this magnificent experience that brings us to Marrakech, where cinema becomes our shared language, and bears hope and fraternity along with it.

The President of The Marrakech
International Film Festival Foundation

The Scandinavian cinema honored by the FIFM

The 13th International Film Festival of Marrakesh ( FIFM) paid on wednesday evening a tribute to the particular Scandinavian cinema,  knowing  a great developement for nearly a decade.

About thirty Scandinavian movies,  having met large success as universal creations , are on the program of the FIFM this year. Present is a delegation of  Scandinavian  actors, directors and producers chaired by the Swidish moviemaker Ball August , twice Golden Palm in Cannes Film Festival for his movies "Peel the Conqueror" and "Best Intentions".

The festival insists on Scandivian cinema by presenting Scandinavian movies to the Moroccan Public, an occasion  to discover the mythical talent of great figures of Scandinavian cinema (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).

Among these movies the Danish Full -length film ''The Word''( 1955), by the movie director Carl Theodor Dreyer, a masterpiece adaptation of  the play of the Danish  Kaj Munk, "The Seventh Seal" in 1957, by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, one of the movies which made discover the Swedish cinema. To mention also, the big successes of the last century: "Gertrude", ''The imigrants'', ''Automn Sonata'', ''Peel The Conqueror'', ''Rzykiavik'' and ''Faithless''.

During the last ten years; several scandinavian films testify of the beauty of this cinema: "Brothers", ( 2004), ''To Man Job'' (2007), "R" ( 2010), "A Highjacking", "A Royal Affair",  "City State" and ''Northwest" ( 2013).

The moviemaker Martin Scorcese presented the Star of the Festival to the Scandinavian delegation. Speaking in the name of the Scandinavian delegation, the Danish film director NIcholas Winding Refn expressed thanks to HRH prince Moulay Rachid, president of the FIFM Foundation, and to Martin Scorcese,  chairman of the offical jury competition for the precious tribute.

He was highly delighted to see this 13th FIFM edition program Scandinavian movies.

Since the start,  the FIFM testifies of the richness and diversity of Scandinavian cinema through a selection of Scandinavian films in the official competition.  In 2012, the Danish movie "A Hijacking" by Tobias Lindholm won the prizes of the jury and best male performance of the FIFM.

The Scandinavian movies are widely distributed thanks to their great international development.

The Scandinavian fikmakers have both temperament and good taste. Their imagination gives free to expression in these countries of design, through colors, forms and elaborate esthetics.
The tribute ceremony rounded up with the screening of the movie" Valtz For Monica" by Per Fly, telling the story of the true life of Monica Zetterlund's, the swedish jazz legend who sacrified her role of mother and lover in the name of  the search for consecration.

Besides the tribute attributed to the Scandinavian cinema, this 13th edition of the FIFM dedicates its "Coup de Coeur" section to the Moroccan Cinema with a selection of four Moroccan films.

Fifteen movies are competing for the Golden Star, the Prize of the Jury and those of feminine and male interpretation will be descerned on december, the 7th.

Marrakech Fest: 'Hannibal' Star Mads Mikkelsen on Denmark's Oscar Entry 'The Hunt' (Q&A)

3:34 PM PST 12/6/2013 by Rhonda Richford

The actor also spoke about working with Nicolas Winding Refn and being replaced by Ryan Gosling as the object of the director's cinematic affection.

MARRAKECH -- When he's not starring as the world's most tasteful serial killer on NBC's Hannibal, Danish star Mads Mikkelsen has an impressive international résumé, working in both his home country and the U.S. He won the best actor trophy at Cannes last year for his turn as a persecuted teacher in Thomas Vinterberg's wrenching drama The Hunt. His next film, the "Danish Western" The Salvation comes out next year, and he's slated to take part in the third Kung Fu Panda movie as well as Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen's tentatively-titled dark comedy Men and Chicken.

In Morocco, as part of the Scandinavian delegation receiving a cinema tribute at the film festival here, Mikkelsen sat down with reporters to talk about his Cannes best actor win, the "fannibals" and being bumped by Ryan Gosling as director Nicolas Winding Refn's latest obsession.

The Hunt is Denmark's best foreign film entry. What do you think the chances are that the film that earned you the best actor at Cannes might be nominated for an Oscar?

I feel really good about that, and Thomas made a fantastic film. He deserves all the credit whether we do get nominated or not -- only time will tell. But we're just proud to be in the running. And Cannes was a very, very big experience for me. I can't overestimate how much it meant for me in the sense that I can't really measure it in terms of career. But while we didn't make the film for awards, I would be a liar to say that we don't cherish it when we get a nice pat on the back. I was really happy that day [in Cannes] and so, so proud of the film.

What do you like about playing Hannibal?

The way he dresses. It's something I would never do, so it's interesting for me to come in my Adidas clothes in the morning and jump into this character's clothing. I can't say that I like the character, but I like playing him. He's a man that's very manipulative and is always in control. He does have empathy, but he controls his empathy, and I think that's a very interesting dimension of a psychopath. He's sensitive in a different way. He's a lover of everything that's fine -- fine art, fine food, fine people. Everything that's banal he would like to kill or just ignore. He's not full of hate, but he's not full of love, and he's not full of evilness. He sees the beauty of life in the threshold of death. So it's not a brutality from his point of view, it's just a different perspective.

What is the difference between the world of television versus film?

I'm not so good at computers and stuff, but I do believe we have a group of fans of Hannibal that call themselves "fannibals," about 700,000 people. I don't think you see that in films because this [is] on every week, and fans start communicating about the show. There's a whole life in there that I don't understand because I can't even open a computer. With a film, it's that you saw it, you can bring it back home and think about it or not. But with TV, if you get hooked on it, it seems to become a lifestyle. It's a world I had no idea existed. I think it's fascinating, and we have to be grateful because these are the people who watch our show.

Hollywood has had an issue with age and creating roles for older actors. Are you considering how to make a transition?

Well let's continue this in the gym! [Laughs.] No, I'm not concerned at all. There's something that we can't run away from, and that's our age. I think that Hollywood's actually been fairly nice to the male actors, but on the other side, that has not been the case. The second you hit 30 as a woman, you have to wait until you are 80 again and then they bring you back as Miss Daisy. But there has been a fair amount of interesting parts for men in their 50s and 60s and 70s, so I don't think about that too much. I've never really planned my career, and I will see where it ends. I do what I think is fun, and if it stops, it stops. But if it stopped tomorrow, I'm not sure that I'm the guy that would knock on doors.

Do you believe your looks have impacted your career in any way?

Beautiful? Are you calling me beautiful at this table? Can we add young then?

I actually had a Danish comedy called Shake It All About that couldn't be released in Japan because the character was too ugly -- that was the feedback that came back, and that was unfortunately me. But in terms of work, no; in terms of the press and journalism, yes. Early on I did things where I was not necessarily the pretty boy; I had tattoos all over my face and I never made an effort to be "the thing." So work-wise no, but obviously if one of the gossip magazines nominates you as one of the sexiest men of the year, it stays with you for a long time and it does color people's opinions. But I have to look at it from the other way: It's nicer to be the sexiest man than the ugliest man, right? If I was aware that I was a "pretty boy" earlier in my career, I would have been more aggressive with it when I was younger. A talented young woman who's pretty will have to struggle to prove that she's talented. I think that boys are not told that in the same way, let's put it that way.

How was it working with fellow Dane Nicolas Winding Refn early in your career? Do you have any plans to work with him again?

We started out together. We started from scratch with the first Pusher film, which was both our first film, and I think we immediately caught on to an energy where we challenge each other and do different things. Nicolas is probably one of the few people I would work with without seeing a script, because I know that we are not going to do what's in the script anyway. If he's burning for something, I know it will be interesting.

But he's cut the leash! No, we will work together again. But [Ryan] Gosling is his new loverboy and a slightly younger version as well. [Laughs.] I have no problem with that. It seems they have found a way to work together, and obviously if you are in America and want to do stuff you can't just bring your whole team there, and you're not going to raise any money. He found someone who can fill up that space, and it's worked out that they've made great stuff. One day, when Nicolas is more settled in America and he can decide a little more, hopefully he'll call me again. If not, we can do something back home.

Do you make conscious choices to balance working in Denmark and working in the U.S.?

I had a break for five years when I did nothing in Denmark. There just wasn't anything. And then all of a sudden two things came along -- A Royal Affair and The Hunt. We did them back-to-back, and that was coincidence. If there were 80 films there that I wanted, I would do that. But the country's small, and if you do one film a year there, people start puking and saying you're in everything. I remember when I did A Royal Affair, people complained about me being in every film, and [it] had been 5 years since my last film! So we struggle with that back home.

You started out as a dancer. Any thoughts about doing a dance movie or musical?

But then I'd have to sing too, and I'm not sure anyone would pay for that! We'd have to have some serious dubbing. But they tend to be quite cheesy. If you could do it in a not cheesy way, I would definitely be interested. If it was something rough and had a little more depth to it, that would be interesting to me. There's always something fun about people who randomly start dancing.

And at clubs are you the best dancer?

I'm probably next to the pool table.