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Ahmed Mesnaoui (أحمد المسناوي; born 18 September 1929 –17 may 1996), was a Moroccan filmmaker and a pioneer of early Moroccan cinema work.

Biography
Ahmed Mesnaoui was born on 18 September 1929 in Rabat. From 1939 to 1947, he did his primary studies at the écoles des fils de notables and then secondary at Collège Moulay Youssef in Rabat. In 1948, he followed an internship in photography and cinema in France. In 1949, he made the first Moroccan 16 mm film, "La Source d’l’Art Maghrebin". He sold a 16 mm camera to the filmmaker so he could continue in the 1950s making films in 16 mm. In 1950 became a member of the Ciné-club de Paris. He followed another course in 1951 in Ifrane, organized by the Centre Cinématographique Marocain on directing and shooting. In 1952, he founded "L'Amicale des Cinéastes Amateurs" which is the first Moroccan cinematographic association and which brought together, among others,, Abdelkebir Alaoui, Omar Ghannam and Mustapha Zaâmi. He worked as a civil servant at the State Secretariat of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 1955. In 1956, Mesnaoui participated in an internship organized by UNESCO, at the audio-visual center of Sirs El-Layan in Egypt. From 1957 to 1961, he worked as a director in the Education Department of the Ministry of National Education. In 1962, he joined the Centre Cinématographique Marocain where he directed many short films until his retirement in 1986.