Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu’s art horror Tiger Stripes won the top €10,000 grand prize of the 62nd edition of Cannes’ Critics Week sidebar.
Nell Eu’s debut feature explores themes of metamorphosis and rebellion in her film about a teenage girl whose body begins to morph at an alarming rate as she learns to embrace her true self. The film is a multi-territory co-production between Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Qatar.
Screen’s review said the film “truly growls in its depiction of the brutal nature of girl friendship and the shock of the menstrual metamorphosis.”
Not only is Tiger Stripes the first film from Malaysia in Cannes for several years, but Eu is the first female director from the country in selection at the festival. Films Boutique is handling international sales and Jour2Fete will release the film in France.
“Irreverent and uncompromising, Tiger Stripes does not try to please, it is content to fully assume its seductive singularity. It was the first film of the selection that we saw. It has passed the test of time,” Critics’ Week’s 2023 jury president Audrey Diwan told Screen.
Other prizes
In its second year, the €8,000 French Touch jury prize went to Belgian filmmaker Paloma Sermon-Daï’s It’s Raining in the House (Il Pleut Dans la Maison), about a brother and sister struggling to survive as their home floods and their bank accounts dry up.
Jovan Ginic scooped the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Best Actor for Vladimir Perisic’s Lost Country. Nans Laborde-Jourdàa’s Boléro took both the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film and the Canal+ short film award.
The Gan Foundation award for Distribution went to French distributor Pyramide Films for Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy, a debut feature about a home care worker, widow and mother (Palestinian actress Mouna Hawa) who fights for her independence.
Iris Kaltenback won the SACD prize for screenwriting for The Rapture (Le Ravissement) that she also directs. The psychological thriller tackles themes of female friendship and motherhood and stars Hafsia Herzi, Nina Meurisse, Alexis Manenti and Younes Boucif.
Led by artistic director Ava Cahen, now in her second year at the helm, this year’s Critics Week featured 11 films and seven in competition, all of which were world premieres and six of which were directed by women, including four in competition.
Diwan was joined on her jury by journalist, curator and advisor to the programming of the Berlin Film Festival Meenakshi Shedde as well as Sundance’s Film Festival programming director Kim Yutani, Portuguese cinematographer Rui Poças and German actor, choreographer and dancer Franz Rogowski.
Last year’s grand prize went to Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s The Pack (La Jauria), while UK director Charlotte Wells’s father-daughter drama Aftersun won the inaugural French Touch Prize before heading off to its prize-winning run on the international festival and awards circuit.
The prizes were announced in a closing ceremony in the Critics’ Week Espace Miramar, followed by closing night film Erwan Le Duc’s tragi-comedy and second feature No Love Lost.
The competition is not over for the first features in the selection. They are still eligible for Cannes’ Caméra d’Or aimed at debut features in the parallel sections as well as Official Selection.
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