If ever there was an upcoming event that felt outrageously exciting, almost too jam packed with greatness (could there ever be such a thing!) it’s the Marrakech International Film Festival — which will take place from November 30th to December 8th, 2018 in the beautiful Moroccan city. Now in its 17th edition, the festival took a year off in 2017 and is coming back stronger, better and more action-packed than ever.

Today they’ve added directors Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro, Cristian Mungiu, Yousry Nasrallah and Cannes Film Festival General Delegate Thierry Fremaux to their line-up for some insightful “Conversation With”, adding to their list of cinematic personalities already attending. In the past weeks the festival announced Robert De Niro, Agnes Varda and Robin Wright in attendance, as well as filmmaker James Gray as head of their competition jury.

For Scorsese, this is not the first time he has been to the festival, actually his fifth, and in fact the filmmaker admitted:

“I’m so happy to be on my way back to Morocco, a country I feel very close to, and to be taking part in another edition of the Marrakech Film Festival. I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends, making some new ones, and seeing some movies at a film festival that will always be close to my heart.”

By including audiences in on the conversation about great cinema and getting together such a varied and distinguished group of filmmakers, actors and film lovers and supporters, Marrakech (#FIFM) is fast becoming “a space for expression, exchange and reflection around the 7th art,” as the powers that be there pointed out in a recent statement.

I’m ready to embark on a new adventure. Are you coming with me?