The debut feature by Julia Ducournau continues its tour of the international festival circuit, provoking on each occasion the same combination of horror and delight in viewers. At the BFI London Film Festival, Raw has just won the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature Film.
The British filmmaker Sarah Gavron, director of Suffragette, presented the award to Julia Ducournau at the festival's closing ceremony, held October 15.
Gavron described Raw as "a film that shocked and surprised us in equal measure." She continued in glowing terms: "We admired the way the director did something completely unexpected with the genre. We enjoyed the outrageousness of the story-telling, and the glee with which events unfolded. We loved the eerie originality of the setting, the dark, dark humor, the great score and the truly distinctive visual language. And the bold charismatic acting of the women at the centre of a film that is both unique and unsettling and will quite literally make some swoon."
Another French film, Divines, by Houda Benyamina, was honored with a Special Commendation for its "standout female performance from Oulaya Amamra and for its great energy and veracity."
