Said Taghmaoui was a crowd favorite at the 9th Marrakech International Film Festival.(PHOTO: AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

In spite of its recent arrival on the global film festival circuit, the 9th Marrakech International Film Festival attracted some of the world’s most respected filmmakers. Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami presided over the jury this year, a role previously held by Roman Polanski, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Milos Forman and Barry Levinson.

The festival manages to showcase both the dynamic Moroccan film industry and the astonishingly diverse protagonists of international cinema.

Since 2005, Moroccan directors have been making between 15 and 20 feature films a year, according to Nour-Eddine Sail, Director General of the Moroccan Film Center.  He told CNN the North African country is dedicated to producing its very own images of its cities and landscapes, as well as promoting Moroccan filmmakers.

Foreign investment is very important to the Moroccan film industry: Mr Sail added that overseas money - coming mainly from Europe and the U.S. - amounted to $100 million in 2008 and $60 million in 2009. Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven,” Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” and the upcoming “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” - starring Ben Kingsley and Jake Gyllenhaal - were all shot in the famous Atlas film studios in Ouarzazate.

The Marrakech International Film Festival is a celebration of cultural diversity. This year 15 nationalities are represented in the international competition. French-Moroccan actor Said Taghmaoui was given a special tribute and his star power was evident on the red carpet, where Moroccan women, men and children showered him with affection and offered him babies’ cheeks for kisses.

Even though Taghmaoui is amongst only a handful of young French actors who have managed to cross over into Hollywood, the 36-year-old was modest when accepting the award, previously given to veteran actor, Sir Ben Kingsley. Taghmaoui moves seamlessly from French to English, considering himself an international actor, and telling CNN “the sky is my home.”

Marrakech also paid tribute to Serbian screenwriter, director and musician Emir Kusturica, who embodies the concept of the international filmmaker. Kusturica attended the Milos Forman Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and then went on to win the Palm D’Or twice in his career for  “When Father Was Away on Business” and “Underground.”

After teaching at Columbia University in New York, Kusturica made “Arizona Dream,” his first film in the United States starring Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway which won him the Silver Bear in Berlin.

In 2008 Kusturica launched a film festival dedicated to helping young filmmakers in the Serbian mountain resort town of Mokra Gora, a town which was developed out of a Kusturica set for the film “Life is a Miracle.”

Kusturica’s future projects include a film about the life of Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa in his upcoming biopic titled "Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers."

The cast of Fatih Akin's 'Soul Kitchen' with the Festival director Despina Mouzaki. (PHOTO: Vasilis Ververidis)

Arriving in Thessaloniki for the 50th film festival I was met with the Greek sunshine (an exception for northern Greece in November) and festival liaison Aspasia who embodied the efficiency, positive energy and can-do attitude of this unique festival. Aspasia’s name goes all the way back to Greece’s Golden Age when she was one of the few women intellectuals around and a long time partner to Pericles, the founder of democracy.

This is not Cannes, Venice or Toronto. It’s a small festival which nevertheless manages to screen 240 films in its 10-day run and takes pride in involving the Thessalonians in its celebrations in every way it can. Hordes of volunteers and young performers storm the city with imaginative acts inspired by memorable film scenes. From an homage to choreographer Dean Collins who taught actresses such as Shirley Temple and Joan Crawford how to swing dance in the legendary Hollywood film studios of the 1940s and 1950s to an experimental dance performance inspired by the angels in the Wim Wenders film "Wings of Desire."

If one word were to be used to describe this festival, it would be accessibility. Festival-goers can turn up and tap into the wisdom of director Werner Herzog, discover the inspiration for "Pans Labyrinth" from production designer Eugenio Caballero and quiz Fox Studio studio exec Jim Gianopoulos about the real story behind Jim Cameron’s "Avatar."

The best part about these masterclasses? Anybody can attend, they’re informal and they’re free. If you want to follow Herzog’s film seminars at his new Rogue Film School, a few hours will cost you a few hundreds dollars.

The former warehouses of the city’s port authority have been transformed into screening rooms, festival offices and exhibition centers and they are only a hop away from the main city square and the scenic boardwalk that runs along the Thermaikos Gulf.

Once you enter the world of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, you enter a whirlpool of late night film screenings, 3 a.m. film debates in tiny cocktail bars and high profile film-makers who get behind the decks to direct their own DJ sets. You soon realize that the city lives by night. Its Byzantine monuments, like the Belvedere castle, take on another life when lit against the dark sky, and there is something very romantic about watching the bar lights reflect off the Thermaikos Gulf.

The organizers are not kidding when it comes to loving film. It’s bestowing Golden Alexander awards on Herzog and Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic – the latter a nod to the festival’s commitment to showcasing films from the Balkan region. Japanese Pink Erotica and Filipino film-makers (including Lav Diaz, whose film "Melancholia" is an eight hour opus) are featured and the main international competition focuses on first- and second-time film-makers.

Domestically though, the festival’s brightness is somewhat dimmed by the absence of some of the brightest lights in Greek film-making. A boycott of the National Film Awards which follow the festival is intended to alert the newly-elected government to long-running concerns about government commitment to the film industry.

But the new Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos gives a positive message about attracting European film-makers to Greece, the festival’s dynamic director Despina Mouzaki exudes pride in the landmark event and her festival wraps itself around you – you see it in every corner from posters to ticket booths to promotional projections on the city’s ancient building which themselves become cinematic screens and you even go to bed with it if you happen to turn on the TV in your hotel room.

Thessaloniki’s cuisine is eclectic, bringing together the cuisine of Constantinople, the Mediterranean, and even flavors from the large Jewish community of Thessaloniki. Middle-eastern music mixed with Metallica in a suitably eclectic DJ set by Turkish-German director Fatih Akin followed the opening night premiere of his film "Soul Kitchen."

As a stalwart of Thessaloniki, we quizzed him on his reasons for coming back. His reply was simple: "The food, the people, the place."

Director and screenwriter Nora Ephron, best known for writing "Sleepless in Seattle", brings together culinary queens from different generations in "Julie and Julia." - iconic U.S chef Julia Child and her modern-day disciple Julie Powell.

Meryl Streep stars as Julia Child in 'Julie and Julia'.

The film centres on publications by both women: "My life in France" is Child’s autobiography, chronicling the beginnings of her journey into cooking and writing the bestselling book "Mastering the art of French Cooking."

"Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," is 30-year-old New Yorker Julie Powell's compendium of blogs about working her way through all the recipes in Child’s classic cookbook while holding down a steady job.

Much like Child’s signature recipe for potato dauphinois, the film delivers overlapping layers, dividing the action between the lives of the two women. Ephron doesn't try to set up the two women as equals, as there is doubtless a discrepancy between their achievements. Instead, the film offers an account of how Child’s example transformed, somewhat unexpectedly, the life of a woman born more almost seventy years later.

It is a rehabilitation of sorts for Child, whom I had easily dismissed during my college years as a relic from an age of unemancipated femininity. Just as Child’s story pulled Julie into a whirlwind of cooking and writing, the film "Julie & Julia" took me on a journey into the life of a 20th century American icon.

As a young girl, I felt trapped between my mother’s liberal American values and my conservative Greek father’s beliefs at the other end. Even though my mother was and is culinary star, I spent most of my youth avoiding the kitchen, a space I associated with female subjugation.

So, when I began my studies at Smith College in Massachusetts - an independent liberal arts college for women whose famous alumnae span the political spectrum from first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush to influential feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan as well as Child - I found myself looking for role models that appeared more subversive.

This, in spite of the fact that just one year before I began my freshman year Julia was still cooking on air aged 84. Even though Julia’s name seemed to emerge and remerge on campus, I never thought more about her accomplishments. Hers was a story I preferred to escape than pursue.

Watching Nora Ephron’s film changed this and became the trigger that led me on my own journey to explore Child’s uncompromising and fearless character. After watching Ephrons’ film I realized that Julia worked hard to overcome obstacles and pursue her two creative passions: cooking and writing.

I also realized that Child is not that different from many of the women I already admired. She pushed her way into the elite Cordon Bleu cooking school with little knowledge of French at a time when the majority of chefs worldwide were male.

Julia Child saw her life as a work in progress: she presented the first live cooking show in America, "The French Chef" in 1963, aged 50, wrote eight cookbooks and presented TV specials well into the 1990s when she was in her eighth decade.

In researching Julia Child’s life, I turned to other Smith alum Gail Wescott who interviewed Child as she was moving out of her Massachusetts home to live the last chapter of her life in assisted living center close to Los Angeles.

Wescott remembers her interviewee aged 90 telling her that she STILL had one book in her and it was going to be the memoir of her life in France with her loving husband Paul. (This book was later published as "My Life in France," co-written with her grandnephew Alex Prud’ homme.)

Wescott told me, "In this moment, Julia Child became a role model well beyond her iconic culinary achievements. She was someone about to enter her 90s who was still totally engaged with life, who still had another story she wanted to tell."

LONDON, England - Hollywood has a new best friend - its wealthy Indian brother.

Akshay Kumar with co-stars Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan and the film's director Nikhil Advani at the premiere of 'Chandni Chowk to China.'

U.S. film stars and studio bosses are singing Bollywood's praises, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the Mumbai-based film industry churns out over 1,000 motion pictures a year and controls nearly 95 percent of the Indian market, leaving foreign films with only a thin slice of the pie.

Will Smith is amongst the U.S. stars with the closest ties to Bollywood. Smith has a production deal with one of India's leading studios and aims to marry the two industries. At the London premiere of his latest film "Seven Pounds" earlier this week, Smith confessed his fondness for Bollywood films: "I love the flavour, I love the energy," Smith told CNN. "It's bright, it's colourful. It speaks to my spirit! That's how I see life."

Hollywood studios have been equally keen to get in on the action. Today, Warner Brothers Pictures give their first Bollywood production "Chandni Chowk to China," the biggest U.S. release of any Indian film to date, hoping it will emulate the success of Danny Boyle's Mumbai-based hit "Slumdog Millionaire."

"I think we have something to take from them and we have something to give back," said Nikhil Advani the director of "Chandni Chowk" at the film's London premiere. "What we can take from them is the template to get a little more organized, and as far as they are concerned, they have a huge market they can cater to."

A market of 1.2 billion to be exact, not to mention the enormous Indian diaspora spread across the globe - another potential goldmine. "It's a huge fan-base,” Indian superstar and "Chandni Chowk" protagonist Akshay Kumar said, "Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, and Afghans all over the world; they all enjoy Bollywood."

Judging by the turnout at Monday night's London premiere of the film, they're dedicated too - in spite of very poor early reviews for the movie. For hours, hundreds of expat Bollywood fans endured sub-zero temperatures merely to get a glimpse of their tartan-trousered hero Akshay Kumar. Given this sort of dedication, Hollywood's new friendship is bound to be a lucrative one... isn't it?

"Chandni Chowk to China" is released across UK and US cinemas today.

Do you think Hollywood and Bollywood will be a good movie-making team?