The French animated film “Les Larmes de la Seine” which tells the story of the massacre of Algerian demonstrators committed by the police in Paris, under the authority of the prefect Maurice Papon, on October 17, 1961, was rewarded Thursday during the Student Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
A “tragedy (…) long killed, denied or concealed“, said President Emmanuel Macron last year, recognizing “crimes (…) inexcusable for the Republic“.
The film won a bronze medal at the ceremony. “We wanted to make this film to shed light on an event that is far too little known in France, when it is part of our history.“, explained the directors, Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard and Nicolas Mayeur, three students from the Pôle 3D school in Roubaix. “We would be happy if it makes people want to discover more, and show our way of seeing the future without forgetting what happened.“, they added while receiving their award.
STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS
Unbelievable !!
Live from Los Angeles, Les Larmes de la Seine wins the bronze prize at the Student Academy Awards! #studentacademyawards #Oscars #animation #price #bronze #losangeles #awards pic.twitter.com/cyaqKJfuzt
— POLE 3D (@POLE3D) October 21, 2022
On October 17, 1961, some 30,000 Algerians demonstrated peacefully in Paris against the curfew imposed on them, at the call of the National Liberation Front (FLN) which demanded the independence of Algeria.
On the 60th anniversary of the massacre last year, Emmanuel Macron acknowledged for the first time that “nearly 12,000 Algerians were arrested and transferred to sorting centers. In addition to numerous injuries, several dozen were killed, their bodies thrown into the Seine“. The official toll has so far only counted three victims. Their number is estimated by historians at at least several dozen, if not several hundred.
The student Oscars are very popular in Hollywood. Past winners include Spike Lee, Pete Docter (creator of Monsters & Co. and up there), Robert Zemeckis (director of Back to the future), and Cary Fukunaga (director of Dying can wait).
The gold medals were awarded on Thursday to films dealing with subjects as varied as space travel (Almost Home), lucid dreams (Against Reality) and child abduction (Found). On a lighter note, An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It won first prize for animation.