Oscar-winning Danish director Thomas Vinterberg has been announced as president of the jury at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival, running from November 29 to December 7.
The jury awards the Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second films in the international competition, recent winners of which have included Asmae El Moudir’s Mother of all the Lies (2023) and Emad Aleebrahim-Dehkordi’s A Tale Of Shemroon (2022),
“In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures,” said Vinterberg. “Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now.”
Marrakech has strong connections with the Danish cinema world. Last year it celebrated longtime Vinterberg collaborator Mads Mikkelsen with an honorary career achievement award. He spoke fondly of his connection with the director in his masterclass.
Vinterberg previously served as a member of the Marrakech jury in 2015 under the presidency of Francis Ford Coppola, alongside Anton Corbijn and Naomi Kawase among others.
His work was also feted by the festival as part of a tribute to Scandinavian cinema in 2013, which featured his 2012 film The Hunt among 43 features from the region.
The director has since gone on to make the Oscar-winning drama Another Round (2020), which also won a BAFTA, French César, and four European Film Awards. He was also nominated for best director in the Academy Awards, which was a first for Danish director.
He will arrive in Marrakech having just launched his first ever mini-series Families Like Ours, which world premiered in Venice ahead of its release in Denmark in October.
A co-founder with Lars von Trier of the Danish Dogme 95 movement in the mid 1990s, Vinterberg’s other celebrated credits include The Celebration (1998), It’s All About Love (2003), Dear Wendy (2005),When a Man Comes Home (2007) and Submarino (2010), Far from the Madding Crown (2015) and The Commune (2016).
Vinterberg has also written and directed critically acclaimed plays for the national stage at Austria’s Burgtheater Wien, which have played to sold-out audiences around Europe. He has also directed music videos for bands including Blur and Metallica.
