El Maanouni Ahmed

Biography

Ahmed El Maanouni is a director, screenwriter, director of photography and a Moroccan producer born in 1944 in Casablanca. After studying economics at the University of Paris-Dauphine and theater at the International Theater University of Paris, he began studying cinema at the INSAS in Brussels. His filmography has one of the most emblematic titles of Moroccan cinema Alyam, Alyam made in 1978, the first Moroccan film selected at the Cannes Film Festival. His second film Transes 1982 became a cult film continuously celebrated, restored by the World Cinema Foundation and presented by Martin Scorsese at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes in 2007, is the most widely distributed Moroccan film in the world. His film The Burning Hearts 2007, won the Grand Prix at the National Film Festival and has received numerous international awards.in 2017, he directed the film "Fadma" crowned by the prize of the realization at the last National Film Festival in Tangier, and was selected to open the International Festival "Views of Africa" ​​of Montreal.

 His documentary films deal with colonial history and its impact on Moroccan memory.

He runs parallel study groups and teaching programs around the world. In 2007, Ahmed El Maanouni was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.