French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski has just finished filming "Vie Privée" starring Jodie Foster in Paris, and will premiere in Paris on January 16 The French film prize was awarded to a packed audience in a splendid room at the Ministry of Culture.

Gaëtan Bruel, chief of staff to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as Unifrance president Gilles Pelisson and managing director Daniela Elstner, introduced the tribute by film promotion agency Unifrance.

The French Film Awards were created in 2016 to honor actors, filmmakers and producers who have contributed to the success of French films abroad. Past winners include actors Juliette Binoche, Virginie Efila and Melville Poupaud, director Olivier Assayas and producers Aton Sumash and Dimit Lee Rasam et al.

Zlotowski, who is bilingual and has worked with a host of international talents including Natalie Portman, Lily-Rose Depp and most recently Foster, has been actively promoting her work as a screenwriter or film producer Every movie I've been involved in. She also showcases diversity in her work, giving actors from different ethnic and social backgrounds unique, non-stereotypical roles; she is a founding member of the French Feminist Organization, which has international film festivals such as Cannes signing the pledge , allowing for greater gender equality and transparency in choice.

A graduate of the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the French film school La Femis, Zlotowski first co-directed the short film "Dans le Rang", which won the SACD Award at the 2006 Cannes Directors' Fortnight. As part of her graduation project at La Femis, she wrote the screenplay for Belle Epine, which became her debut feature. The latter had its world premiere at Cannes Critics' Week in 2010 and won the Louis-Dluuc Award for Best First Film. The film also earned Léa Seydoux a 2011 César Award nomination for Best Female Newcomer. Zlotowsky subsequently reunited with Seydoux in her second film, Grand Central, also starring Tahar Rahim, which screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. had its world premiere. This is her third film. The movie "Planetarium" starring Portman and Depp was released in Toronto and Venice in 2016 and was released in 25 countries. "Easy Girls," starring Zahia Dehar, was released during the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight.

In 2022, she directed "Other People's Children" starring Virginie Efila and Roshdi Zem. The film competed in Venice and sold nearly 400,000 tickets. It is spread over about 40 regions.

Zlotowski has also made a splash on the small screen, including the political thriller Les Sauvages, which she directed and co-wrote for Canal+. The series unveiled a new generation of actors, notably Dali Bensalah, Suhaila Jacob, Shane Boumediene, Lena Kudry and Sofian Zelmani, many of whom Everyone attended the award ceremony.

"It's hard to receive this tribute, especially when you're in the same room with other people who are being mentioned, and when you see the list of people who have received this tribute before," Zlotowski said. You feel very humbled," said industry insiders such as her long-time producer Frederic Jouve, influential banker Gregoire Chertok, producers Marie-Ange Luciani, Benjamin Elalouf, Priscilla Bertin, Didar Domehri. Others cheered for her, including her father Michel Zlotowski, a well-known translator, and her stepmother and sister.

"As everyone here knows, humility is a quality that is not only extremely rare among filmmakers, but I would say, even undesirable. Because in this industry and, dare I say it, in this profession , you need to be immodest. It is immodest to imagine the world with your own desires. It is immodest to get so much energy and raise so much money from others while always feeling a little uncertain. Humble,” she continued.

Speaking about the unlikely plot of her own film, she quipped: "It will be the story of a girl near a motorcycle track. He falls in love at a nuclear power plant. An easygoing girl has a wonderful time. 's summer, etc... As you can imagine, you always feel grateful for those who believe in this, and as far as I'm concerned they have been the same from the beginning," Zlotowski quoted her as saying . Ad Vitam's producer Frederic Jouve and publisher Alexandra Henochsberg, as well as actors who have worked with her, "Léa, Tahar, Natalie, Zahia, Virginie, Jodie, Rochdy, Marina, Sofian, Dali, Lena, Daniel, Vincent and Mathieu.”

In his touching speech, Zlotovsky also praised "the love of family, the love of a father, a mother who died young, a stepmother, the love of brothers and sisters." “My sister Yael always believed that I would succeed in whatever I did and she gave me a lot of confidence.”

Zlotowski's next film, Vie privée (starring Forster, Efila and Daniel Auteuil), will be released later this year and is expected to play worldwide at a major film festival Premiere.

The awards ceremony took place during the French Film Festival in Paris, a week-long event of screenings and meetings with international sellers and buyers organized annually by Unifrance.