Tunisian director Erige Sehiri won the first prize of the Etoile d’Or at the Marrakech Festival for her female feature film Promised Heaven during the weekend.
The drama about three Ivorian women living together in the Tunisian capital of Tunis, is Sehiri’s second fiction feature film after the selection for the 2022 Directors’ Fortnight. Under the fig trees.
Promised Heaven Actress Deborah Lobe Naney won the best actress award for her portrayal of a young mother living far from her loved ones and seeking to give them a better future.
The cast also included Aïssa Maïga, who accompanied Sehiri to Marrakech, as well as Laetitia Ky and Estelle Dogbo.
Speaking to Deadline on the red carpet earlier in the festival ahead of her win, Sehiri revealed that the films were part of a trilogy about working women in Tunisia, which she plans to complete with a drama set in a luxury hotel in Hammamet.
Promised Heaven was among the 13 first and second feature films in the Marrakech 2025 competition, with a jury chaired by Bong Joon Ho and also including Anya Taylor-Joy, Jenna Ortega, Céline Song, Karim Aïnouz, Hakim Belabbes, Julia Ducournau and Payman Maadi.
Among the other prizes, the Jury Prize went ex aequo to the documentary by Jihan K My father and Gaddafi and that of Vladlena Sandu Memory.
Oscar Hudson won the Best Director award for Right circlewhile the Best Actor award went to Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù for his performance in Akinola Davies Jr. My father’s shadow.
The jury also praised the precision of actors Elliot Tittensor and Luke Tittensor in Oscar Hudson’s film. Right circlegiving them both a special mention.
The Marrakech Film Festival ran from November 28 to December 6, with highlights including awards tributes to Jodie Foster and Guillermo del Toro, and on-stage conversations with Andrew Dominik, Laurence Fishburne, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Jafar Panahi.
This year’s edition also presented its largest industrial component, with the 8th edition of its Atlas Workshop at the heart of professional activities. Some 350 professionals took part in the event for meetings around 28 projects.
In the post-production line-up, the first prize of €20,000 went ex-aequo to Don’t let the sun rise on me by Asmae El Moudir, and The sweetest by Laïla Marrakchi.
In the Atlas Development category, the first prize of €30,000 was awarded to the Mozambique project Plate 100Directed by Ique Langa.
More than 47,000 spectators attended the festival screenings, including 7,000 children and adolescents as part of the Young Audience and Family program.
