Morocco Has the Fourth Biggest Film Industry in Africa

Morocco's film industry ranks second to the film industry of Egypt in north Africa and also attracts many foreign filmmakers for the exotic tourist attractions which have become some of the best locations for Hollywood films. The most popular films made in Morocco include "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Living Daylights" (1987), "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), "The Mummy" (1999), "Gladiator" (2000), "Kingdom of Heaven"  (2005), "Kundun" (1997), "Legionnaire" (1998), "Hanna" (2011), "Hills Have Eyes" (2006), "Babel" (2006), "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" (2011) and parts of the TV series "Game of Thrones" and "Prison Break" have been shot in Morocco.

The Ouarzazate, "The door of the desert" is the favourite location of the Hollywood studios. It is the capital of Ouarzazate Province in Drâa-Tafilalet region of south-central Morocco. Ouarzazate is at an elevation of 1,160 metres (3,810 ft) in the middle of a bare plateau south of the High Atlas Mountains.
The Marrakech Film Festival also attracts filmmakers from America and Europe, competing for the coveted Golden Star.

The first film made in Morocco was Le chevrier Marocain ("The Moroccan Goatherd") by Louis Lumière in 1897. And the first Moroccan movie, Le fils maudit  ("The Damned Son") was made in 1958 by Mohammed Ousfour.

Morocco once ranked the third biggest film industry in Africa after Egypt and South Africa has been overtaken by Nigeria by numbers of screens and box office revenues. Morocco has 68 screens and Nigeria famous for her Nollywood of the  southern region and Kannywood of the northern region has 130 screens  and is currently the second largest producer of home videos after Bollywood of India.
Morocco once had 350 cinemas, but presently only 50 are still functional due to decreasing numbers of movie-goers. There is the Casablanca IMAX in the Morocco Mall which opened on December 1, 2011.

The Moroccan film industry is regulated by the Moroccan Cinema Centre
http://www.ccm.ma/en/.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, author of "Scarlet Tears of London", " In the House of Dogs", "Diary of the Memory Keeper" and other books distributed worldwide by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu and other booksellers. https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima.