Moroccan cinema will be represented at the 2027 Oscars by La Más Dulce, the latest feature film from Franco-Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi.
The selection committee met on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at the headquarters of the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre (CCM) to choose Morocco’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category. Chaired by Tariq Khalami, assistant director and CCM representative, the committee unanimously selected Marrakchi’s film.
The CCM described the choice as a natural one in a statement based on the deliberations of its selection committee, which included director Laila Triqui, actress Saadia Ladib, producer Raouf Sebbahi, cinema operator Mounia Layadi, distributor Siham El Faydi and critic Said El Mezouari.
La Más Dulce was selected ahead of three other films competing to represent Morocco: L’Homme des signes by Zhor Fassi Fihri, The Wound by Saloua El Gouni and L’Héritier des secrets by Mohamed Nadif. According to the CCM, Marrakchi’s film stood out for the strength of its subject, its technical and artistic qualities and its prospects for international distribution.
The story follows two young women who travel to Andalusia to work as seasonal strawberry pickers. Marrakchi has described the film as a portrait of hope confronted with reality, portraying Andalusia as an El Dorado and exploring how people need dreams and stories to keep moving forward. The director also said she wanted to film a group of women as a single entity that gradually begins to fracture, with faces telling their stories almost without words.
The selection of La Más Dulce comes as little surprise to observers of the latest Cannes Film Festival. The film had its world premiere there in May in the Un Certain Regard section of the 79th edition, one of the festival’s main showcases for auteur cinema, known for highlighting distinctive works and filmmakers taking new directions.
The film now enters the long race for the Oscars, where it will have to win over the Academy to have a chance of becoming one of the finalists in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2027 ceremony.
