Young French directors are on the rise.
Two months after the coronation of Julia Ducournau in Cannes for "Titane", the director Audrey Diwan, 41, received Saturday the Golden Lion in Venice for "The event", a film about a young woman who aborts clandestinely.
“Unfortunately when you work on abortion you are always in the news,” said Audrey Diwan, who succeeds the Chinese-American Chloe Zhao, crowned last year for “Nomadland”, receiving her award.
“I made this film with anger and desire, I made it with my stomach, with my guts with my heart,” she added.
“I wanted it to be an experience”, a “journey through the skin of this young woman”.
This award was awarded to him unanimously by the jury chaired by South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (“Parasite”).
The film, adapted from the eponymous autobiographical story by novelist Annie Ernaux, takes place in France in the 1960s, before abortion was legalized.
It shows the journey of a young student who becomes pregnant, interpreted by the Franco-Romanian Anamaria Vartolomei, a discovery.
“The Event” is the second film by Audrey Diwan, who filmed a young couple struggling with drug addiction issues in “But You're Mad” (2019).
Already known for "La French" or "Bac Nord"
Journalist and novelist who wrote for television, she co-wrote the screenplay for several French films including "Bac Nord", a film on police violence currently on French screens or "La French" by Cédric Jimenez, then moved on. to the realization.
She also participated in the writing of season 4 of the series "Mafiosa".
Among the other films awarded at this 78th Venice Film Festival, the Grand Prize went to the Italian Paolo Sorrentino for a film about his childhood in Naples during the time of footballer Diego Maradona, “The Hand of God”.
This film is produced and distributed by Netflix, and therefore should not be released in theaters in France, like the prize for best director, awarded to "The Power of the Dog" by New Zealander Jane Campion.
Penelope Cruz (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
As for the performers, the Spanish star Penélope Cruz was rewarded for her role in "Madres Paralelas" by Pedro Almodovar. Film that opened the 78th Mostra, “Madres Paralelas” is built on the crossroads of two women who give birth the same day in the same maternity hospital, and Penélope Cruz plays a forty-year-old photographer who becomes pregnant with an archaeologist and married friend, who promised to help him find the burial place of his great-grandfather, who disappeared at the start of the Spanish Civil War.