the Louis-Delluc prize crowns “The Animal Kingdom”, by Thomas Cailley

This fantastic film, starring Romain Duris and Adèle Exarchopoulos, imagines a world in which some humans have begun to mutate towards an animal form.

The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley was awarded the 2023 Louis-Delluc Prize, the prestigious French film prize, announced Wednesday, December 6, Sophie Avon, co-president of this prize awarded by a jury of critics. Very noticed at Cannes, where he opened the Un certain regard selection, The Animal Kingdomwhich has reached the milestone of one million entries since its release, imagines a world in which some of humans have begun to mutate towards an animal form, from octopus to wolf.

“It’s an enormous pleasure to receive this award and to see the film so widely seen and loved. It rewards a very large collective adventure,” said Thomas Cailley alongside actor Romain Duris, who plays in the film.

For critic Sophie Avon, The Animal Kingdom was rewarded “for his artistic ambition”. “With this genre film, Thomas Cailley dares to do things, which is quite rare in French cinema. The film is extraordinary in its form (…)”underlined to AFP Sophie Avon.

Were also in the running Anatomy of a fallthe 2023 Palme d’Or for Justine Triet, Little Girl Blue by Mona Achache, with Marion Cotillard, The Goldman Trial by Cédric Kahn or even Last summer by Catherine Breillat.

First film prize for “The Rapture”

The 2023 Louis-Delluc prize for first film went to the feature film The Rapture by Iris Kaltenbäck, with Hafsia Herzi, in the role of a midwife who becomes insanely attached to her best friend’s newborn.

On the occasion of the awards, a tribute was paid Wednesday to the critic and film historian Michel Ciment, who died in November. He was a great voice of “Masque et la Plume”, the oldest of France Inter broadcasts.

Last year, the films Saint-Omer by Alice Diop and Peacetion by Albert Serra were named joint winners. Made up of around twenty critics and personalities, under the presidency of Gilles Jacob, the former president of the Cannes festival, the Louis-Delluc prize was founded in 1937 in homage to Louis Delluc, the first French journalist specializing in cinema and founder of film clubs, died at the age of 33.