François Ozon’s The Stranger won the best film prize at France’s Lumiere Awards, which took place on Sunday night (January 18) in Paris.
The adaptation of Albert Camus’ 1942 novella also saw Benjamin Voisin win best actor for his role as a Frenchman living in 1930s Algeria who murders a stranger. Voisin previously won most promising actor in 2021 for another Ozon film, Summer Of 85. Manu Dacosse also won for best cinematography.
The Stranger is produced by Ozon’s production house Foz and Gaumont, and first premiered in competition at Venice. Gaumont, which also handles international sales, released it in France in October, where it garnered 760,000 admissions.
It marks Ozon’s first best film Lumiere win after being nominated twice before in the same category, in 2020 for By The Grace Of God and in 2021 for Summer Of 85.
Richard Linklater won the best director award for Nouvelle Vague which chronicles the production of 1960 classic Breathless. Its breakout star Guillaume Marbeck also collected the most promising actor prize for playing Jean-Luc Godard.
Lea Drucker was named best actress for her role as a police investigator in Dominik Moll’s yellow-vest-protests thriller Case 137. It is Drucker’s first win after nominations in 2019 for Custody and Last Summer in 2024.
Nadia Melliti took home the most promising actress prize for Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, a breakout role that also earned her the best actress award in Cannes where the film premiered in competition.
Stephane Demoustier won best screenplay for his historical drama The Great Arch about a Danish architect tasked with constructing the Great Arch of La Defense in the early 1980s, which first debuted in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Demoustier won the same award in 2021 for The Girl With A Bracelet.
Another Cannes-premiering title, Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, about a time-travelling boy in a rainbow suit, won best animated film.
Pauline Loques’ Nino, starring Theodore Pellerin as a young man whose medical diagnosis sends him on a trek through Paris, won best first feature.
Vincent Munier’s Whispers In The Woods, a visual ode to nature and its poetic soundscapes, won for best score.
Fresh off its double Golden Globes wins for best international film and best actor, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent won for best international co-production. It is produced by Brazil’s CinemaScópio, France’s mk2 Productions, Germany’s One Two Films, and the Netherlands’ Lemming Film.
Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk was named best documentary.
The Lumière Awards are voted on by international correspondents from 38 countries. The 31st edition of the prize ceremony was held at Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe. France’s Cesar awards are held on February 27 this year.
Full list of Lumière winners
Best film
The Stranger, dir. François Ozon
Best director
Richard Linklater for Nouvelle Vague
Best screenplay
Stéphane Demoustier for The Great Arch
Best documentary
Put Your Soul on Your Hand And Walk, dir. Sepideh Farsi
Best animated film
Arco, dir. Ugo Bienvenu
Best actress
Léa Drucker for Case 137
Best actor
Benjamin Voisin for The Stranger
Most promising actress
Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister
Most promising actor
Guillaume Marbeck for Nouvelle Vague
Best first film
Nino, dir. Pauline Loquès
Best international co-production
The Secret Agent, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Best cinematography
Manu Dacosse for The Stranger
Best score
Warren Ellis, Dom La Nena & Rosemary Standley for Whispers In The Woods
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