Rebecca Zlotowski wins Unifrance French Cinema Award

17 JANUARY 2025

The honorary award was presented to director Rebecca Zlotowski on January 16 at the French Ministry of Culture by Unifrance President Gilles Pélisson and Executive Director Daniela Elstner, in the presence of Gaëtan Bruel, Cabinet Director to the Minister of Culture, and CNC Acting Director Olivier Henrard.

Created in 2016 by Unifrance, the French Cinema Award (designed in 2018 by 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 at the Ministry of Culture and launched by Gaëtan Bruel, Director of Cabinet for French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, Gilles Pélisson, President of Unifrance, gave an overview of French cinema and audiovisual figures for 2024, and spoke about the cinema and audiovisual markets taking place at the same time in Paris as part of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, with over 1,000 people accredited. He also offered his congratulations and thanks to the young directors, actresses, and actors of the Unifrance 10 to Watch 2025 (all present for the occasion) and to the international MyFrenchFilmFestival jury, gathered in Paris for the January 17 launch of this entirely online event organized by Unifrance.

Daniela Elstner, for her part, looked back on Rebecca Zlotowski's brilliant 15-year career in cinema and on the small screen, underlining, beyond her talent as a filmmaker and her international recognition, the filmmaker's ability to speak out loud and clear for women, "for cultural diversity, for our universal political values of freedom, respect for otherness, solidarity, and democracy." Elstner also emphasized the director's “constant determination to uplift the work of [her] fellow filmmakers, with [her] natural and sincere sense of sisterhood.”
Referring to the forthcoming release of the director's next film, Vie privée, starring Jodie Foster, Daniela Elstner concluded: “Unifrance is very happy to reward you for your loyalty, your experienced commitment here and elsewhere. And, of course, this award recognizes your prodigious creative freedom, which honors our cinema beyond our borders and underpins so well the noble ambition we accord, in France and in Europe, to arts and culture. You're very sensitive to voices, so thank you, dear Rebecca, for your own inimitable voice.”

In her humorous and emotional acceptance speech, Rebecca Zlotowski, surrounded by friends and family (including Roschdy Zem, Sofiane Zermani, Dali Benssalah, her producer Frédéric Jouve, her cinematographer George Lechaptois, her co-screenwriter Gaëlle Macé, her first assistant Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux, and her distributor Alexandra Henochsberg) first thanked Unifrance for enabling her to travel the world with her films, from London to Auckland, from Sydney to New York.

“Every day, we have to bring a film before the audience, and wait with bated breath for their judgment. And I have a trick to avoid trembling, which is to film actors that everyone dreams of. I don't like to invent them, but the opposite: I like them to invent me. I cling to the idea that if I were to disappear into the graveyard so full of women filmmakers – from Jacqueline Audry to Joan Micklin Silver and Claudia Weil, who remembers? – I'd have a better chance of staying alive thanks to them. Pure magical thinking allows me to imagine that I've been lucky enough to take with me those I dreamt of: Léa, Tahar, Natalie, Zahia, Virginie, Jodie, Roschdy, Marina, Sofiane, Dali, Lyna, Daniel, Vincent, Mathieu, I thank you."

Then, in a very moving moment, she recalled her family, who have always encouraged her and instilled her with her confidence, and the cultural melting pot which was a structural support. Quoting Romain Gary, she mentioned a phrase she first heard as a child in The Party / La Boum, and which had a profound effect on her: “Patriotism is love for one's own people; nationalism is hatred for the others.”

“My patriotism goes beyond France. My people are Los Angeles, burning with along with a part of our cinephile imagination. My people are everywhere in the world where filmmakers are less fortunate than I am to try, fail, and begin again. My people are those who believe in the spells of cinema, who don't need to inflict on actors in real life what they ask them to experience in faked life (...) My people are those who still believe in the movie theater, in the collective dimension of our art. My people are also those with whom I disagree, but who have an open table at my place, so that we can talk... and so that I can convince them that I'm right, of course! In this sense, even more than the patriotism of French culture, I have the patriotism of cinema. I'm its brave little soldier.”

Introducing the 10 to Watch 2025 and launching the 25th MyFrenchFilmFestival

The ceremony also highlighted the Unifrance 10 to Watch of 2025 (10 talents to follow – 11 in fact, due to the presence of a sibling! – selected by trade press journalists and whom Unifrance will promote internationally over the coming year), in their presence: Adam Bessa, Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, Julien Colonna, Louise Courvoisier, Sayyid El Alami, India Hair, Lou Lampros, Jonathan Millet, Megan Northam, and Agathe Riedinger.

Last but not least, on the occasion of the opening of the 15th MyFrenchFilmFestival on January 17, several filmmakers and performers whose films are part of the selection were also present at the ceremony: