Marrakesh, Morocco: Outdoor Movies at the Marrakesh International Film Festival

King Mohamed VI decreed the Marrakesh International Film Festival into existence to draw visitors during November, the beginning of the rainy season in coastal North Africa. Today it is run by Public Système Cinéma, a French company specializing in creating festivals. The focal point is Jemaa El Fna, the city's famed central square, where free open-air screenings take place each evening.

Marrakesh has a long cinematic history as both a centre of local production and a filming location -- from Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much to The Mummy. Past festival luminaries have included directors Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, and David Lynch, and stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Connery. One edition paid tribute to Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Yeoh and offered retrospectives on 40 years of British cinema, 50 years of Moroccan cinema, and the work of Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Joseph Losey. Admission to the outdoor screenings is free.