Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi is a Moroccan film director and screenwriter. She was a recipient of the 2017 Gan Foundation prize and a grant from the Doha Film Institute in 2017. Her feature film, ''Sofia'' won the best screenplay award at Cannes,

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section in 2018. She has also written and directed five

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s, winning two filmmaking awards for her 2014 film ''Jenna'' in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Biography

Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi was born in 1984 in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. She attended the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris, studying Arabic languages. She later studied directing in 2010 at the INSAS film school in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. Benm'Barek-Aloïsi directed five short films in Brussels, gaining attention for Nor (2013) and Jennah (2014). Benm'Barek-Aloïsi has created exhibitions in sound art at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London. In 2017, the Gan Foundation for Film, which supports first and second full length film projects, awarded Benm'Barek-Aloïsi a €53,000 grant, as one of five winners. The foundation provides support to winning filmmakers from concept to production and distribution of their films. Also in the Spring of 2017, Benm'Barek-Aloïsi was named a grant recipient by the Doha Film Institute.

Film career

''Sofia'' (2018)

''Sofia'', "the director's portrait of a country's complex relationship to its own values, laws and taboos" tells the story of a 20 year old Moroccan women desperately searching for the father of her unborn child to avoid being reported to the authorities. The story opens with Sophia, who is unaware she is pregnant until she goes into labor. Her cousin, Lena, a medical student understands what is happening to Sophia and takes her to a hospital. In a race against time, the hospital grants the young woman 24 hours to provide documentation of the father of the child before alerting the police. Together with her cousin, Sophia tries to locate the young man she only met once. ''Sofia'' was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, section

. Benm'Barek-Aloïsi won the best screenplay award at the festival and a standing ovation from the Cannes audience for her film.

''Jennah'' (2014)

In 2014, the

Jennah was released. Written and directed by Benm'Barek-Aloïsi, the story centers on a 13 year old girl growing up in Morocco. The film was the winner of the jury award at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2015 for Best New Mavericks Short. It also won the Grand Prize for Best Short Film in the

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the Newpor ...

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benm'Barek-Aloïsi, Meryem Women screenwriters Moroccan women film directors Living people 1984 births Moroccan film directors