France’s Lumière Awards proved a colossal evening for Audrey Diwan’s festival favorite “Happening,” which took home both best film and best actress wins on Jan. 17. The abortion drama previously won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was later acquired by IFC Films. Set in 1963 France, “Happening” focuses on a promising young student (Anamaria Vartolome) who risks prison to terminate an unwanted pregnancy that threatens her academic future. Venice Film Festival jury president Bong Joon Ho deemed the Golden Lion win for the film an “unanimous decision” among voters. “Happening” beat out Leos Carax’s “Annette,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Living,” Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions,” and Arthur Harari’s “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle” to win Best Film at the Lumière Awards, which are selected by France-based members of the foreign press.
Carax won best director for musical drama “Annette,” starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver. The film was also awarded Best Cinematography for Caroline Champetier and best music for Sparks.
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“Lost Illusions” led the Lumière Awards with five nominations before earning the prize for Best Script. Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh were honored with the best first film title for “Gagarine”; the filmmaking duo were represented at the in-person awards ceremony by Alséni Bathily and Lyna Khoudri (“The French Dispatch”) due to their respective production schedules.
The Lumière Awards also announced Best Animated Feature for Patrick Imbert’s “Summit of Gods,” while Thimotée Robart won Best Male Newcomer for his role in Vincent Maël Cardona’s “Magnetic Beats.”
The Best Actor award went to Benoit Magimel for his turn in Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Living,” while Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier’s “The Velvet Queen” won Best Documentary.
Predicted Oscar international feature film contender “The Worst Person in the World” took home the title of best international co-production. The genre-bending, time-twisting drama premiered in Competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, with IndieWire’s critic David Ehrlich applauding its emphasis on the “what if.”
Ehrlich wrote of writer/director Joachim Trier‘s critically-acclaimed film, “This is the ever-relatable fantasy at the heart of this movie: Choice without consequence. ‘The Worst Person in the World’ soars whenever it allows Julie to embrace such magical thinking and sort through the reality of it all for herself.”
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