The sixth Marrakech Short Film Festival runs 25 to 30 September 2026. Dates, venues and pass prices are on the official Join Us page. ANSA Med confirmed Malta as guest country on 2 September. You do not need a FIFM industry badge. You do need to know which rooms are free and which nights eat a 50 to 600 DH pass.
The structured dates, pass table and venue list live on our festival event page. This piece is the door policy: what a visitor in Marrakech that week can actually get into without hanging around Palais El Badi hoping for a miracle seat.
Four passes, two free rooms
The 2026 block on marrakechshortfest.com/join-us lists four accreditations. Apprentice is 50 DH and needs a student ID at the door. It covers official Cyber Parc screenings from 26 to 29 September plus talks and masterclasses if seats remain. Friends is 200 DH for the same park nights and the same talks, again subject to availability. Neighbours is 400 DH for cinema and culture workers, with a professional proof of activity. That pass adds opening night, the opening after party, AMANAR at The Folk, closing at Palais El Badi and the closing party at The Source. VIP is 600 DH and adds the documentary and low-budget screenings subject to seats, on top of the Neighbours list.
Buy on iticket.ma. The same Join Us page still shows an older Friends / VIP block with September 27 opening dates and Bahia Palace closing copy. That is leftover from a previous edition. Use the 2026 prices and the 25 to 30 September calendar at the top of the page. If iTicket and the leftover block disagree, the 2026 Join Us section and the 6th-edition announcement post win.
Two programmes are listed as free, subject to availability. Bridges of Reality, the African documentary strand, screens at the Institut français de Marrakech. The Low Budget Film Program screens at the Meydene Auditorium on M Avenue. Those are the rooms a visitor without a park pass should try first. Arrive early. Free in Marrakech still means a finite number of chairs.
Cyber Parc at 19:00 is the public picture
Official open-air nights are 26, 27, 28 and 29 September at 19:00 in Cyber Parc Moulay Abdessalam, the garden between Avenue Mohammed V and the Koutoubia side of the ville nouvelle. You need one of the four passes. This is the closest the week gets to a public square screening. Bring a layer. Late September evenings drop after 21:00 even when the afternoon hit 34°C.
Opening on 25 September and closing on 30 September are both at Palais El Badi in the medina. Those ceremonies are tied to Neighbours and VIP access. Do not plan a casual walk-in to the ruins that night and expect a seat. The palace is a working festival venue that week, not a sunset viewpoint with a projector.
AMANAR, the industry platform, is 27 to 28 September, 10:00 to 16:00, at The Folk in Hivernage. Talks and masterclasses across 26 to 29 September pull filmmakers, producers and programmers. If you are a working editor or a film student, that is the useful room. If you just want shorts under the trees, stay on the park pass and skip the daytime industry block.
Malta week, Moroccan prizes, city as circuit
Malta sent nine shorts. The Consul General’s note on the official announcement frames it as cultural diplomacy, with the Malta Arts Council and the Centre for the Maltese Language named as partners. Italian titles in the international competition include Giulia Grandinetti’s Majonézé and Giacomo Bendotti’s The Bridge, which ANSA also flagged.
The Moroccan competition is the part locals actually argue about. Belarj, for director, shortlists Fading Candle, Aicha, Two Ways, Mesk Ellil and Behind the Curtain’s Edge. Nakhil, for picture, shortlists Aicha, Two Ways and Paradise Garden. Behja, for acting, names Aziz Hattab, Sandia Tajdine, Khadija Salamadina and Mohamed Ben Seltana. Four Moroccan films play out of competition. That is the list to read if you want to leave a screening able to talk to someone from the medina, not only to a visiting programmer.
Venues scatter on purpose: El Badi, Cyber Parc, The Folk, Institut français, Meydene, World Storytelling Café. Budget taxis. A single evening can run from a Gueliz documentary to a park screening and still miss the after party at The Source unless you hold the right pass. Read the event page for the skeleton. Use this page to pick a pass before you land.
Practical Details
- Dates: 25 to 30 September 2026
- Time: Cyber Parc 19:00 on 26 to 29 Sep. AMANAR 10:00 to 16:00 on 27 to 28 Sep. Opening 25 Sep and closing 30 Sep at Palais El Badi.
- Venue: Palais El Badi, Cyber Parc Moulay Abdessalam, Institut français, Meydene, The Folk, World Storytelling Café
- Nearest transit: Petit taxi. Cyber Parc is on the Gueliz / Mohammed V side. El Badi is in the medina near Place des Ferblantiers.
- Price: 50 / 200 / 400 / 600 DH passes. Free seats at Institut français and Meydene, subject to availability.
- Website: MARRAKECHsFF Join Us
