Taza Prepares to Host the International Coffee Cinema Festival

The Taza region is preparing to host the eleventh edition of the International Coffee Cinema Festival, from December 17 to 20, 2026.

The international event is organized by the Coffee Cinema Festival Association, which has named this edition after the Moroccan actor of Taza origin, Rabie Kati.

With the participation of a group of artists, critics, and enthusiasts from within Morocco and abroad, the festival is held under the theme "Cinema: A Space for Amazigh and Hassani Cultural Expressions."

The event is supported by the Moroccan Cinematographic Center, the Taza Province, the Urban Commune, the Provincial Council, the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Youth and Culture (Culture Sector), the Russian House, the Moroccan Association of Film Critics, Mohammed I University of Oujda, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Cultural Industries and Film Art program), in a cinematic and cultural celebration that reinforces the role of cinema as a developmental lever in the Moroccan cultural industry.

The festival administration has received over 22 feature films and more than 30 animated films, both national and international, while a specialized technical committee is currently reviewing and selecting the participating films.

This edition, titled "The Space," is considered a window and an opportunity to discuss and address the growing presence of Amazigh and Hassani cultures in Moroccan cinema, as an expressive space that celebrates diversity within a rich and multifaceted cultural and cinematic landscape.

Participating films are expected to address several questions, including the argument that the Hassani feature film has not yet established itself as a solid creative genre compared to films in the Moroccan dialect ("Darija") or Amazigh, and that it is still in the stage of building momentum.

In the same context, the festival will host an international intellectual seminar titled "Film Criticism: Between the Art of Reading the Written Text and the Art of Reading the Visual Shadow," moderated by a group of professors, doctors, critics, intellectuals, thinkers, journalists, and student researchers.

Attendees will discuss the challenges of the moving image as an art form in its own right, as well as the foundational paradox faced by critics when visual and auditory creativity is translated into linguistic expression, between a school that reads the film as a text and another that listens to the shadow of the image through light, framing, rhythm, and the body.

In a statement, the festival administration expressed its strong commitment to the culture of recognition during poignant human and artistic moments, by honoring four prominent figures, to be announced later. This is in addition to a fine arts exhibition and a cinematic caravan titled "Plant a Smile," benefiting residents of social centers, socio-cultural, educational, and correctional institutions, youth centers, and coffee shop patrons.

As part of supporting academic research, the new book by Dr. Aziz Zerouki, "Configurations of Love Discourse in Television Drama in Andalusia and the Far Maghreb during the Middle Ages: The Dialectic of Scene and Manuscript," will be signed. There will also be a reading of the novel "The Hole" by author Driss Roukhe, as well as workshops led by researchers, specialists, and artists in technical and applied artistic fields, while the Masterclass will form the core of the edition, where experience, labor, craftsmanship, and sharing breathe.

The juries for this edition consist of two committees, one for feature films and the other for animated films, whose compositions will be announced soon, in addition to the signing of new partnerships with various entities and institutions that believe in the festival's path toward creating a purposeful cinematic culture.