Provost wins Best Screenwriter for Séraphine
Dedicated to features and reserved for authors who have had no more than three scripts made into films, the 2006 Grand Prize for Best Scriptwriter went to Martin Provost for Séraphine.
Based on the life of the painter Séraphine de Senlis (1864-1942), the story begins in 1912 when Séraphine works as a maid for Madame Duphot, who rents an apartment to German art critic and dealer Wilhelm Uhde. At a dinner, his attention is drawn to one of Séraphine’s small paintings. Fascinated, he buys it and insists that she show him her other work.
With CNC advances on receipts, the TS Productions film will be made in 2007 by Provost, who already has two features to his name (1997’s Tortilla y cinema and 2003’s Le Ventre de Juliette).
The Jury Grand Prize – presided over this year by actress Elsa Zylberstein and jury members Pierre Héros (Director of France 2 Cinéma) and Michel Reilhac (General Director of Arte France Cinéma) – also presented an award to scriptwriter Sylvie Verheyde for Stella.
The film, produced by Les Films du Veyrier and also CNC-backed, will recount the misadventures and metamorphosis of a young teenager who attends a respected Parisian high school in 1977, despite her coming from a very different social class as a daughter of parents who own a working class café on the city’s outskirts.
Verheyde – who achieved fame with her first feature Un frère (Best Female Newcomer Cesar for Emma de Caunes) before making Princesses in 1999 – also scripted Scorpion [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julien Seri, which will be released on February 21, 2007.
Since October 30, she has been filming a story about two dropouts, Sang froid (lit. “Cold Blood”), a television film for Arte (co-produced by Gloria Films Production and Les Films du Veyrier) starring Laura Smet and singers Benjamin Biolay and Stomy Bugsy. The director will then start shooting on Stella.
Recent winners of the Grand Prize for Best Scriptwriter include Radu Mihaileanu (Live and Become [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Denis Carot
interview: Didar Domehri
interview: Radu Mihaileanu
film profile]), Julie Bertuccelli (Since Otar Left) and Laurent Cantet (Time Out). In the past ten years, 45 scripts have been selected and successfully made into films.
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
