Celine Sciamma is Done With Film Festivals: “Joyless, Speculative Competitions”

A roundtable discussion between Céline Sciamma (Portrait of A Lady on Fire) and Carla Simón (Alcarras) occured in Barcelona this morning, two of the most important voices in today's European film scene.

During the discussion, both filmmakers addressed questions related to their narrative methodologies and interests as part of a conversation moderated by artist and researcher Blanca Arias.

The topic of film festivals came up. Simón won the Golden Bear last year. Meanwhile, Sciamma still hasn’t won anything at Cannes or Berlin, and she’s saying that she might not go back to a film festival because of the competitive nature [via Renoir of AwardsWorthy forums]:

Today I attended a round table with Céline Sciamma and Carla Simón in Barcelona.
Sciamma said that she's done with festivals. She described them as "joyless, spectulative competitions" and she is not going to participate in them anymore.

In addition, Sciamma also mentions she's no longer interested in making big films on the scale of ‘Portrait’, and plans to prioritize small-scale works like “Petite Maman” moving forward.

Is Sciamma bitter that “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” only won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes 2019 and not the Palme? The Berlinale Jury in 2021 didn’t reward “Petite Maman” with any prizes, despite it being one of the best-reviewed movies of that year’s competition.

Both films placed on the once-in-a-decade Sight and Sound poll. ‘Portrait’ actually finished 30th in the poll, much to outrage of a few. Amy Taubin had mentioned that its high placement was the result of British feminist studies, the same reason, she claimed, that landed Chantal Akerman’s ‘Jeanne Dielman’ at the top of the poll.

If we look at Sciamma’s Film Festival track record then you can understand why she wouldn’t want to go back — 2007’s “Water Lilies” didn’t win anything when it was selected in the Un Certain Regard section. In 2014, “Girlhood” couldn’t even crack official competition and instead screened in Director’s Fortnight.