21st edition of FICAM to be held March 3-8

MEKNES – The 21st edition of the Meknes International Animation Film Festival (FICAM) will be held from March 3-8 in the Moroccan imperial city.

Organized by the Aïcha Foundation in partnership with the French Institute of Meknes, FICAM is devoting this year’s edition a new exhibition to one of its revelations, Sofia El Khyari, a young Moroccan director, born in Casablanca in 1992.

Khyari learned animation on her own in Paris where she studied cultural management. She then got a Master's degree in animation at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London.

She will share original drawings from her short films, including L’ombre des Papillons (The Shadow of Butterflies), her latest watercolour film, selected in Locarno and Toronto.

The film will also be screened in the Official Competition in Meknes as part of the “Court Compet”.

The exhibition will return to the journey of this brilliant director who will invite us in particular to discover the stages of production of “Ayam”, with the voice of the late Amina Rachid.

With this same desire to reveal young Moroccan talents, the 21st edition of FICAM is implementing an exclusive training component in Morocco with professionalizing animation film modules.

Five workshops will be dedicated to animation film professions: Scenario, Story-Board, Character Design, 2D Animation and FX Animation.

The festival will welcome more than 100 students from art and audiovisual schools in Morocco who will benefit from workshops of Master class, Work In Progress, Making of…

FICAM will pay tribute to Kristof Serrand, one of the luminaries of international animated film.

Serrand will give an exceptional Cinema Lesson during which he will look back on his rich career, from the Gobelins school to the most prestigious American studios: Gaumont, Amblimation, Dreamworks, Netflix... Names that inspire dreams and are at the heart of global cinematographic creation.