Luca Guadagnino , who serves as jury president of the Marrakech Film Festival , spoke in fluent French about his North African heritage during the opening gala ceremony on Friday. On stage with fellow jurors including Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield , Guadagnino delivered a lyrical speech in which he revealed he had a personal bond to Morocco. “My Algerian mother grew up in Casablanca.
She was half-Moroccan, so I am half-Moroccan too,” said Guadagnino, whose jury will watch first and second features in competition during the week-long festival to award the Etoile d’Or Prize. “For me, Marrakech and cinema are the same thing. The mystery of the image, the power of editing, of contrast, the beauty and devouring force that animates the cinema I love, it embodies Marrakech and Morocco,” the filmmaker continued.
He reminisced about his first trip to Marrakech in 2002, when he came to accompany a friend who was part of the short film jury and said he was swept away by the friendliness of Marrakech.” “I immediately rediscovered my deep roots,” Guadagnino said. The daring helmer’s latest movie “Queer” world premiered to warm reviews at the Venice Film Festival and could potentially land Daniel Craig an Oscar nomination for his part as a gay American expat in 1950s Mexico City.
The A24 movie is based on the 1985 novel by William S. Burroughs. Marrakech Film Festival’s jury duty reunites Guadagnino with Garfield whom he just directed in the thriller “After The.
