Virginie Efira receives a French Cinema Award from Unifrance

13 JANUARY 2023

Virginie Efira received this honorary award on January 12 at the French Ministry of Culture, from the hands of the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak, and in the presence of Unifrance's president Serge Toubiana, and its executive director Daniela Elstner.

Created in 2016 by Unifrance, the French Cinema Award (designed in 2018 by the Maison Daum*), is intended to celebrate a personality from the international film industry who carries the banner of French cinema across the globe.

During a ceremony held at the Ministry of Culture, the French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak initially looked back at the year of transition that was 2022 and the encouraging results of French cinema and audiovisual productions in France and internationally, emphasizing "the extraordinary variety of films, their quality, their uniqueness, and their power." She focused on the fact that French cinema also comprises a very large component of international co-productions and cooperation, thereby allowing many foreign films to exist thanks to the investments of the French film industry beyond the country's borders.

Serge Toubiana, Unifrance president, then sketched a portrait of Virginie Efira, highlighting the nuances of her acting that we continue to discover from film to film. "Your palette is fine, soft, interiorized, but you know how to take the right risks at the right time, which mark out the career of an internationally renowned actress. I think of course of Benedetta by Paul Verhoeven, a powerful, physical role, that others would have perhaps refused. There is also a great capacity for resilience in you, so well perceived by Alice Winocour in Paris Memories... You create intimacy with your characters, while maintaining their mysteries. This, without a doubt, is your signature. The audience will follow wherever you take them"

In her acceptance speech Virginie Efira evoked her childhood and teenage love for French cinema, citing Claude Sautet, Leos Carax, Bertrand Tavernier, André Téchiné, Cyril Collard, and Mathieu Kassovitz. "Those works were foundational. They shaped my desire to act and to make films; I wanted to pay that feeling forward, to help French filmgoers, and hopefully international audiences as well, share that same feeling of discovery and liberation."

Announcement of the 10 to Watch 2023 and the launch of the 13th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival

This ceremony was also an opportunity to focus the spotlight on the 2023 class of Unifrance's 10 to Watch (10 talents to watch selected by cinema media journalists and that Unifrance intends to promote internationally in 2023) in the presence of some of them (Dali Benssalah, Céline Devaux, Annabelle Lengronne, Nadia Tereszkiewicz).

The opening, on January 13, of the 13th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival, was an occasion for several filmmakers whose films have been selected and offered to the public worldwide to be present at the ceremony: Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas, Leyla Bouzid, Florence Miailhe, Amélie Bonnin, Valéry Carnoy, Simon Helloco, Dorothée Sebbagh, Faustine Crespy, and Laetitia de Montalembert. The international jury, composed of Emily Atef, Chie Hayakawa, Juho Kuosmanen, Sergei Loznitsa, and Albert Serra, was also present.

A portfolio of the evening's highlights can be found below.

* Art is an expression of emotions, a universal language. It is, indeed, "meant to disturb," in the words of the artist Georges Braque. The vision of the Maison Daum is about awakening a reminiscence of ancestral art; it also expresses an abiding connection with the art scene, through over 400 collaborations with artists over the years (such as Armand, Braque, Dali, Mesnager, and Kongo, among others). The Maison Daum wishes, through the French Cinema Award, to offer a magical work representing the wings of a white crystal angel created by Jean Lamore, which serves as a veritable symbol of the pure emotion of aesthetic pleasure.

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Virginie Efira receives a French Cinema Award from Unifrance - Serge Toubiana, Daniela Elstner et Hervé Michel (Unifrance) entourent le jury de MyFrenchFilmFestival: Emily Atef, Sergei Loznitsa, Chie Hayakawa, Albert Serra & Juho Kuosmanen - © Giancarlo Gorassini/Unifrance

Serge Toubiana, Daniela Elstner et Hervé Michel (Unifrance) entourent le jury de MyFrenchFilmFestival: Emily Atef, Sergei Loznitsa, Chie Hayakawa, Albert Serra & Juho Kuosmanen