At the Cannes Film Festival, the importance of presence is not measured solely by the number of films screened or the glamour of the red carpet stretching along the Croisette. Its real value lies in those parallel moments that appear, on the surface, to be little more than elegant parties and private receptions, while in reality they function as a vast symbolic marketplace where influence, legitimacy, and cultural power are negotiated within the global film industry. In the discreet lounges of luxury hotels and behind the closed doors of national pavilions, alliances are formed, financing deals are discussed, distribution paths are mapped out, and sometimes the future of entire films is decided before audiences ever see them. Cannes is therefore not merely a cinematic showcase; it is a global laboratory of cultural soft power where nations and institutions compete to shape their place in the world’s visual imagination.
Within this permanent motion, the side events acquire strategic significance. A reception hosted by the Cairo International Film Festival and led by Hussein Fahmy, another organized by the Sri Lankan film center around “Rehana” by director Chandran Rutnam, an Indian evening celebrating Alia Bhatt alongside the legacy of Satyajit Ray and Amitabh Bachchan, or a Saudi gathering honoring JAX Studios and Rwandan filmmaker Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo — all of these events point toward one reality: cinema has become a geopolitical language through which countries project identity, influence, and cultural ambition.
In this context, the reception organized by the Marrakech International Film Festival Foundation in collaboration with the Moroccan Cinematographic Center emerged as more than a ceremonial gathering. The presence of figures such as Melita Toscan du Plantier, Mohamed Reda Benjelloun, Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, and Palestinian director Elia Suleiman signaled Morocco’s growing desire to position itself not simply as a host of festivals, but as a cultural crossroads connecting Africa, the Arab world, and the West through cinema and artistic dialogue.
Yet beneath this carefully staged elegance lies another reality — one that has gradually become a recurring phenomenon at major international festivals. Every year, certain individuals appear in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and Marrakech despite having little or no real footprint within the cinematic industry itself. No films in competition, no significant productions, no visible role in professional film markets, no international collaborations of consequence. And still, they return home with endless photographs in tuxedos, carefully staged images on red carpets, and social media pages transformed into exhibitions of symbolic prestige.
The issue is not their right to attend these events. Cultural spaces should remain open to exchange and discovery. The deeper problem lies in the growing confusion between social visibility and artistic legitimacy. For some, film festivals have become platforms for personal branding rather than spaces of artistic engagement, intellectual exchange, or cinematic contribution. The red carpet ceases to be a passage toward culture and becomes instead a backdrop for manufacturing illusion.
More troubling is what this phenomenon reveals about structural weaknesses within parts of our cultural environment. While major international festivals operate through highly professional networks where relevance is measured by projects, influence, creativity, and artistic contribution, parts of our own cultural sphere remain trapped in the logic of appearance. Media exposure is often mistaken for genuine achievement.
As a result, many return from these festivals suddenly transformed into commentators on cinema, criticism, culture, and even cultural geopolitics, despite possessing only a superficial relationship with filmmaking itself. This belongs entirely to the age of social media, where repeated visibility can sometimes replace actual work.
And perhaps this is the deepest contradiction of all: while some individuals turn festivals into giant photography studios, the truly urgent questions facing Moroccan cinema remain unresolved. Where are the international distribution strategies? Where are the screenwriting institutions capable of producing globally resonant stories? Where are the modern film academies and production ecosystems that could transform cinema into a serious intellectual and economic force?
Ultimately, the Cannes Film Festival functions as a massive mirror. It reflects not only the strength of global cinema, but also the fragility of certain elites more fascinated by visibility than by creation itself. Because cinema rarely remembers those who merely walked the red carpet. It remembers only those who managed to leave an idea, an image, or an emotion inside the memory of the world.
