Marrakech - Following nine days of exciting and colourful programmes and events, the 9th Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM) culminated with the awarding ceremony, during which the festival's jury granted the "Gold Star" to Mexican director Rigoberto Perezcano for his movie "Northless".

The festival's jury, chaired by renowned Iranian director, screenwriter and producer Abbas Kiarostami, awarded the Jury's Prize both to Belgian director Nabil Ben Yadir and to Malaysian Charlotte Lim for their movies "Les barons" and "My daughter" respectively.
   
Dutch Lotte Verbeek received the best actress prize for her role in "nothing personal" of Urszula Antoniak, while Danish Cyron Melville got the best actor prize for his role in Morten Giese’s "Love and Rage".

The closing ceremony, which was attended by cinema, arts and culture celebrities, was marked by the screening of "The double hour" of Giuseppe Capotondi.

The red city, which hosted the kings and queens of cinema on December 4-12, saw off its visitors coming from around the world to celebrate the seventh art in a meeting that has established itself as a venue for world cinema.

The 15 movies participating in the official competition represent 15 nationalities, including Morocco which was represented by "The Man Who Sold the World" of Swel and Imad Noury.

The other movies are Luca Guadagnino’s "Io Sono L'amore (I'm Love)" (Italy), Nabil Ben Yadir’s “les barons (barons)” (Belgium), Javier Rebollo’s "Woman Without Piano"(Spain), Matsumoto Hitoshi’s “symbol” (Japan), KIM Tai-sik’s “Tokyo Taxi” (South Korea), Dagur Kari’s “The Good Heart” (USA), Ahmad Abdallah ‘s "Heliopolis"(Egypt), Enrique Buchichio’s "Leo's Room"(Uruguay), Morten Giese ‘s "Love and Rage" (Denmark), Charlotte Lim’s “My Daughter” (Malaysia), Rigoberto Perezcano’s "Northless" (Mexique), Urszula Antoniak’s "Nothing Personal" (Netherlands), Léa Fehner’s “"Qu'un Seul tienne et les autres Suivront (Silent Voices)” (France), and  Nosir  Saidov’s "True Noon" (Tadjikstan).

Chaired by Kiarostami, this year’s jury included French actress Fanny Ardant, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, Italian actress Isabella Ferrari, French director,  Christophe Honore, Spanish actress Marisa Paredes, British director Mike Figgis, Indian actress Nandita Das, Argentinean director Pablo Trapero, and Moroccan dancer, choreographer and director Lahcen Zinoun.

The FIFM's 9th edition paid tribute to the 100-year-old Korean cinema.   

Previous editions of this international artistic event paid tribute to Morocco in 2004, Spain in 2005, Italy in 2006, Egypt in 2007 and Britain in 2008.