Strawberries (La más dulce), Laïla Marrakchi’s drama about Moroccan women who cross to southern Spain for the strawberry harvest, has sold to the US distributor Artmattan for theatrical release, Screen International reported late on Sunday. The film is Morocco’s submission for best international feature at the 2027 Academy Awards.
Paris-based sales company Lucky Number has also closed the film for Italy (Wanted), Poland (Aurora), Portugal (Midas), Hungary (Vertigo) and the Baltic states (A-One Baltics), according to the report. No price or US release date was disclosed.
Key facts
- US: theatrical rights to Artmattan, as reported by Screen International
- New territories: Italy, Poland, Portugal, Hungary and the Baltics, all sold by Lucky Number
- Coverage: with earlier deals, the film now has a named buyer or distributor in 14 territories or territory groups, by FilmBunch’s count of the published deals
- Premiere: Cannes 2026, Un Certain Regard; Los Angeles premiere on 8 November
- Next: the international competition at Cairo (11–20 November), then a gala screening at the Marrakech International Film Festival (20–28 November)
Where the film has sold
The new deals build on a first round that Lucky Number closed before the Cannes premiere in May: Austria (Panda Lichtspiele Filmverleih), Greece (Weirdwave), Germany (immergutefilme), Benelux (Imagine Film Distribution) and the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (MCF Megacom). Jour2Fête is releasing the film in France, Asdo Films in Spain and Praesens Film in Switzerland. Praesens is one of the 12 distributors that formed the Lokia network on the eve of the American Film Market.
That makes 14 territories or territory groups with a named buyer or distributor, counting the Baltic states, Benelux, and the former Yugoslavia with Bulgaria as one entry each. Lucky Number’s film page has not caught up: it still lists the film as available worldwide except France, Spain, Switzerland, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia, the position before the May deals.
The film
Nisrin Erradi plays a Moroccan mother who takes a season’s work in the Spanish strawberry fields, hoping to earn enough to buy her children a home. In Lucky Number’s synopsis, two young women make the journey on a promise of fair wages. Solidarity with the other pickers sustains them until abuse and sexual harassment end their illusions, and with a Spanish lawyer at their side they weigh whether to take on the system that employs them. Hajar Graigaa, Hind Braik, Fatima Attif, Larbi Mohammed Ajbar and Itsaso Arana complete the cast. The dialogue is in Spanish and Arabic.
It is Marrakchi’s third feature, after Marock, which played Un Certain Regard in 2005, and Rock the Casbah, which screened at Toronto in 2013; her television work includes The Bureau and The Eddy. The film is a four-country co-production led by France’s Lumen, the company behind Sentimental Value, with Morocco’s Mont Fleuri Production, Spain’s Fasten Films and Belgium’s Mirage Films.
The road to Marrakech
Since Cannes the film has played the Melbourne and Sydney festivals, according to Lucky Number, and it had its Los Angeles premiere at The American French Film Festival on 8 November. Next comes the Cairo International Film Festival, which opens on 11 November with Strawberries in its international competition.
Then it goes home. Marrakech, where the project won the Atlas Workshops post-production prize in 2025, has placed it in the Gala Screenings of its 23rd edition, a 76-film selection that includes 11 national Oscar submissions. Lucky Number also lists the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah among its stops.
What is not known
Lucky Number has posted no statement on the US deal on its website. The price, the US release date and whether Artmattan’s rights extend beyond cinemas have not been disclosed, and no Moroccan release has been announced.
Our reading
For an Oscar submission, a US theatrical partner is the practical minimum: it gives the film a route to the American screenings, press and awards attention that the campaign needs, whatever the box office. Artmattan’s deal supplies that, though the timing of the release will decide how much it helps.
The European map tells a second story. Italy, Portugal, Poland and Hungary join France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux, so a Spanish- and Arabic-language film about migrant farm labour will reach audiences across much of the Europe it portrays. The next evidence is whether larger markets absent from the published list, the UK and Japan among them, follow.
Sources
- Screen International, US and international sales for Strawberries (exclusive), 9 November 2026
- Screen International, pre-Cannes sales for Strawberries, May 2026
- Lucky Number, Strawberries film page (cast, producers, festivals, availability)
- H24info, US deal for La más dulce (French), 9 November 2026