çItalian director Paolo Sorrentino will preside over the jury of the Marrakech International Film Festival, the festival taking place from 11 to 19 November 2022.
“The Marrakech International Film Festival,” remarked Sorrentino in an official statement, “is for me the place where the dream of watching numerous films with Martin Scorsese, and of spending days talking about cinema with him and other talented colleagues, came true. It is an honor to return to Marrakech this year as President of the Jury. I believe—I want to believe—that cinemas will fill up again, and I am sure that many wonderful films will be released soon. To witness this revival from such a symbolic place, to discover the cinema of tomorrow from such an interesting cultural and geographical point of view, will be an additional gift.”
Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino is one of the best-known and exciting representatives of Italian filmmaking today. His work, which includes a dozen films and series, explores contemporary themes and offers a unique reflection on power, politics and religion, among other subjects. An author with an abundant imagination driven by a constantly renewed aesthetic ambition, Sorrentino has won awards at the most prestigious film festivals and events around the world.
Sorrentino was born in the southern Italian city of Naples in 1970. His first feature One Man Up premiered in 2001 at the Venice Film Festival and the film marked the beginning of the filmmaker's frequent collaboration with Toni Servillo, his actor of choice on many films, including his Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza.
All of his subsequent six features were selected for the Official Competition at the Festival de Cannes: Le conseguenze dell’amore, in 2004; L’amico di famiglia, in 2006; Il divo in 2008, which won the Jury Prize; This Must Be the Place which screened in 2011 and was shot in the United States, with Sean Penn and Frances McDormand in lead roles; The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza, in 2013), which won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film; and Youth in 2015 which brought together celebrated actors Michael Caine, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda, Harvey Keitel, and Rachel Weisz. The film received three European Film Awards and was nominated for an Oscar and two Golden Globes.
Always ahead of the wave, Sorrentino then branched out into television. In 2016, The Young Pope, Sorrentino’s first series, was nominated for a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards and in 2019, Sorrentino he followed that with the television series The New Pope, starring Jude Law and John Malkovich.
In 2021, The Hand of God (È stata la mano di Dio), Sorrentino's most personal film, was presented at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. The film is available on Netflix and it received both the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
For more information, check out the festival's website.
Photo of Paolo Sorrentino by ©Claudio Porcarelli, courtesy of the Marrakech International Film Festival.
