Céline Sciamma appeared on the scene in 2007 with her first feature film Naissance des pieuvres (Water Lilies), which explores the needs and desire of three teenagers active in the world of synchronized swimming. According to the director, “adolescence is a moment of fundamental importance, a template of very strong emotions. I wanted to create a sort of X-ray of the birth of femininity.” Presented in the section Un Certain Regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the film also won the Louis-Delluc Prize. After directing one of the shorts in the program 5 films against homophobia, and contributing to the screenplays in the series Les Revenants shown on Canal+, Sciamma made Tomboy (2011), which takes as its themes gender instability and the discovery of sexuality. The film was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and won the Teddy Award. With Bande de filles (Girlhood, 2014), Céline Sciamma continued to explore the complexities of adolescence and the construction of female identity in the face of social conventions. As a screenwriter, she worked on Claude Barras’ cartoon film My Life as a Courgette (Ma vie de courgette, 2016) and André Téchiné’s full-length film Being 17 (Quand on a 17 ans, 2016). In 2019, Sciamma returned to directing with the costume drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu). Presented in the competition at Cannes, it won the award for best screenplay and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best foreign film. Like her previous movies, the film tells the story of the love affair between two women and their struggle toward emancipation. With her most recent outing, Petite maman (2021), Sciamma returned to the mysteries of childhood with a fable about love and loss from the viewpoint of a young girl.
In June, Céline Sciamma’s research has been investigated closely at Cinema Godard, presenting five films produced between 2007 and 2021. On 10 June the French director and screenwriter met the public at the Cinema of Fondazione Prada and talked about her work with Paolo Moretti and Priscilla Robledo, co-director of the MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture. The event was presented by Fondazione Prada as part of the Soggettiva dedicated to the work of Céline Sciamma and by MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture in the MIXUP4PRIDE program.
