For its second edition from September 18 - 22, the Marrakech International Film Festival, founded by Unifrance president Daniel Toscan du Plantier, is rolling out the red carpet. Hampered by the September 11 tragedy last year, the Moroccan Festival intends to make up for lost time, expecting for the occasion Martin Scorsese who is to receive a medal from King of Maroc Mohamed VI, along with two other honored American guests, Francis Ford Coppola and David Lynch. Also slated for Marrakech tributes are Moroccan actor Hassan El Joundi and Indian actor/producer Aamir Khan (Lagaan).

A 10-film feature competition will fall subject to the deliberations of the jury headed by Jeanne Moreau while the short film competition jury is presided by Tunisian filmmaker Moufida Tatli. Certain films were already presented at major festivals like Berlin and Cannes, such films as Go from Isao Yukisada, The City of God from Fernando Mereilles or Rana's Wedding from Hany Abu-Assad. An outdoor screening in the famed Jemaâ El Fna Place is billing Astérix et Obélix, Mission : Cléopâtre from French director Alain Chabat, and in the presence of actor Jamel Debbouze.

As the Festival wants to speak out in the name of "tolerance", a round table will address "Power and Responsiblity in Cinema." Based on three principles - democracy, propaganda and subversion - the questions will turn around Cinema as an art for freedom, Cinema as a mirror for world violence and the participants include Moroccan writers Tahar Ben Jelloun and Abdellatif Laâbi, French notable wits as Bernard Henry-Levy, Maurice Druon (Académie Française) and Reverend Jean-Michel Di Falco (Bishop of Paris).

In Competition

Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise by Dai Sijie, China

America So Beautiful by Baback Shokrian, USA

Cidade de Deus (The City of God) by Fernando Mereilles, Brazil

Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) by Tareque Masud, Bangladesh

Rana's Wedding by Hany Abu-Assad, Palestine

Au-delà de Gibraltar by Taylan Barman et Mourad Boucif, Marocco-Turkey

Les Diables (The Devils) by Christophe Ruggia, France

Et après by Mohammed Ismail, Marocco

Bend it Like Beckham by Gurinder Chadha, UK

Go by Isao Yukisada, Japan