The beautiful locale of Morocco attracted many directors to Morocco. Between 1897- 1944 many foreign movies were shot in Morocco. Ouarzazate served the background to many films. Orsen Welles's "Othello", Hitchcock's "The man who knew too much", David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" were filmed in Morocco.
A significant moment of Morocco movies came in 1944 with the establishment of the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre. Many studios for shooting Morocco movies were established in Rabat. 1958 was a memorable year for the movies of Morocco as the first film of Morocco "Le fils maudit" or "The damned son" was created by Mohammed Ousfour. It marked the stepping stone of Movies in Morocco. The first Mediterranean film festival was held in 1968 in Tangier. In 1982 National Festival of Cinema was held in Rabat. In the year 2001 International Film Festival of Marakech was held in Marakech.
Films in Morocco at present are experimenting with the various genres of cinema. Social issues form the subject matter of the films. Al Zawa, Mektoub, Femmes ...Et Femmes, Keid Esna, Jawhara are some of the contemporary movies in Morocco.
