The festival celebrated South Korean cinema through screenings of around forty films in the presence of numerous South Korean directors, producers and actors. In parallel, the cinema of Thailand was highlighted, giving viewers the opportunity to glimpse another way of making images and telling stories.

For the first time, the festival organised a cataract surgery campaign under the theme The Marrakech Festival Gives Sight Back. Launched in partnership with the Health Ministry and the Hassan II Ophthalmology Foundation, the campaign allowed more than three hundred adults and twenty children to recover their sight.

For a second year, the festival presented a selection of films accompanied by audio-description, this year making it a priority to adapt films in Arabic, among them the Moroccan film Looking for the Husband of My Wife by Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi.

On 6 December, the festival presented three films that consider issues of environmental protection. The Étoile d’Or was given to Northless by Rigoberto Perezcano of Mexico. The festival’s tributes honoured British actor Sir Ben Kingsley, Serbian actor, director, and musician Emir Kusturica, Franco-Moroccan actor Said Taghmaoui, and American actor Christopher Walken.

The feature film jury was presided over by Iranian director and producer Abbas Kiarostami. Jurors included the French actor Fanny Ardant.

Masterclasses were led by Mexican director and screenwriter Alfonso Cuaron, Australian director and cameraman Christopher Doyle, and American director and screenwriter Jim Jarmusch. The presence of great figures in cinema, the arts and media from around the world in the Red Cit, demonstrated the progress made in consolidating the position of such an important artistic and cultural event. It also reflected the quality of the films in the competition and the wealth and diversity of the activities. It was during this edition that the Marrakech International Film Festival really found its feet.