From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History in Cannes and Venice
First it was Mati Diop, the French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first feature film "Atlantics" made her the first black female director to be in the Official Selection in competition for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix equivalent of the silver prize at the 2019 annual Cannes Film Festival, making her the first black female director to win an award in Cannes' 72-year history. And another French Senegalese filmmaker, Alice Diop with the same surname has just made history as first black female filmmaker to win the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, for her first feature, "Saint Omer" and also the Lion of the Future LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS Venice Award for a debut film at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival in 2022.
Mati Diop was born in Paris on June 22 in 1982 and Alice Diop was born in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France in 1979.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.
The following is from an interview with Alice Diop on the making of "Saint Omer".
What led you to develop it as a narrative feature?
A documentary was never the plan. At the time, I was too busy with research, plus we couldn’t shoot in the courtroom and I would never [make the real participants] reenact the proceedings. Anyway, I wanted to recreate my experience of listening to another woman’s story while interrogating myself, facing my own difficult truths. The narrative had to trace a series of emotional states that can lead to catharsis. It’s like accelerated psychotherapy.
Announced by the five international Juries during the Awards Ceremony that was held on Saturday 10th September at 7:00 pm.
VENEZIA 79
The VENEZIA 79 Jury, chaired by Julianne Moore and comprised of Mariano Cohn, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Audrey Diwan, Leila Hatami, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, having viewed all 23 films in competition, has decided as follows:
GOLDEN LION for Best Film to:
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
by Laura Poitras (USA)
SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE to:
SAINT OMER
by Alice Diop (France)
SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR to:
Luca Guadagnino
for the film BONES AND ALL (USA, Italy)
COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett
in the film TÁR by Todd Field (USA)
COPPA VOLPI
for Best Actor:
Colin Farrell
in the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)
AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Martin McDonagh
for the film THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN by Martin McDonagh (Ireland, UK, USA)
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to:
KHERS NIST (NO BEARS)
by Jafar Panahi (Iran)
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD
for Best Young Actor or Actress to:
Taylor Russell
in the film BONES AND ALL by Luca Guadagnino (USA, Italy)
ORIZZONTI
The ORIZZONTI Jury of the 79th Venice Film Festival, chaired by Isabel Coixet and comprised of Laura Bispuri, Antonio Campos, Sofia Djama and Edouard Waintrop, after screening the 18 feature-length films and 12 short films in competition has decided to award:
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST FILM to:
Jang-e Jahani Sevom (WORLD WAR III)
by Houman Seyedi (Iran)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
for the film VERA (Austria)
SPECIAL ORIZZONTI JURY PRIZE to:
CHLEB I SÓL (BREAD AND SALT)
by Damian Kocur (Poland)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS to:
Vera Gemma
in the film VERA by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Austria)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR to:
Mohsen Tanabandeh
in the film JANG-E JAHANI SEVOM (WORLD WAR III) by Houman Seyedi (Iran)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY to:
Fernando Guzzoni
for the film BLANQUITA by Fernando Guzzoni (Chile, Mexico, Luxembourg, France, Poland)
ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM to:
SNOW IN SEPTEMBER
by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia)
VENICE SHORT FILM NOMINATION FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2022 to:
SNOW IN SEPTEMBER
by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France, Mongolia)
ORIZZONTI EXTRA
ARMANI BEAUTY AUDIENCE AWARD to:
NEZOUH
by Soudade Kaadan (UK, Syria, France)
VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM
LION OF THE FUTURE – “LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM Jury at the 79th Venice Film Festival, chaired by Michelangelo Frammartino and comprised of Jan Matuszyński, Ana Rocha de Sousa, Tessa Thompson and Rosalie Varda has decided to award:
LION OF THE FUTURE
“LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS” VENICE AWARD FOR A DEBUT FILM to:
SAINT OMER
by Alice Diop (France)
VENICE CLASSICS
The VENICE CLASSICS Jury, chaired by Giulio Base and comprised of 21 students of Cinema, chosen from the professors of Italian University Cinema programmes, has decided to award:
VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY ON CINEMA to:
FRAGMENTS OF PARADISE
by KD Davison (USA)
VENICE CLASSICS AWARD FOR BEST RESTORED FILM to:
Koroshi no Rakuin (BRANDED TO KILL)
by Suzuki Seijun (Japan, 1967)
VENICE IMMERSIVE
The VENICE IMMERSIVE Jury, chaired by May Abdalla and comprised of David Adler and Blanca Li, after viewing the 30 projects in competition has decided to award:
"Saint Omer" is in the Competition for the Golden Lion at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2022
"Saint Omer" is a 2022 French film directed by Alice Diop, one of the most outstanding international awards winning African documentary filmmakers. The world premiere is at the on going 79th annual Venice International Film Festival.
The film is starring Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda. Its is Diop's first narrative feature producing multiple award winning documentary films.
In the film, Rama (Kagame) is a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old child by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide, in order to turn the tragic event into a literary retelling of Medea.
"Saint Omer" is also in the Official Selections of the 2022 annual Toronto International Film Festival and the 2022 New York Film Festival before the theatrical release in France in November 2022.
ALICE DIOP, DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER, CINEMATOGRAPHER.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
In June 2016, I attended the trial of a woman who killed her baby daughter by dropping her off at high tide on a beach in France. I imagined that she wanted to offer her to the ‘sea’, a more powerful ‘mother’ than she could be. Inspired by a true story, but fueled by an imagination that summoned mythological figures, I wrote this film: the story of a young novelist who attends the trial of an infanticidal mother with the aim of writing a contemporary version of the Medea myth. But nothing will happen as she had planned. The opacity of the accused will constantly return her to her own ambiguity about motherhood. It is a film that I wanted to make to probe the unspeakable mystery of mothers.
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