‘Rocks’ Director Sarah Gavron to Receive Femmes de Cinema Award at Les Arcs Festival

By Elsa Keslassy

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – British filmmaker Sarah Gavron, whose latest film, “Rocks,” competed at Toronto in the Platform section and won two awards at San Sebastien, will be honored during the 11th edition of Les Arcs Film Festival with the Femmes de Cinema Award.

Created by Les Arcs festival in partnership with Sisley in 2013, Femmes de Cinema is an initiative aimed at boosting the representation of women in the film industry, which remains for the most part male-dominated. The Femmes de Cinema Award celebrates visionary female filmmakers from Europe.

“Rocks” is a heartfelt drama set in East London and developed through workshops and improvisation with newcomers.
The story revolves around a teenager, Shola, and her younger brother, who are abandoned by their mother. Afraid to be separated from her brother if social services find out they are living alone, Shola sets out to evade the authorities’ notice at all costs.

Gavron’s follow up to “Suffragette” and “Brick Lane,” “Rocks” will compete at Les Arcs Film Festival, along with nine other features selected by Frederic Boyer, who is also the artistic director of Tribeca.

Gavron succeeds France’s Claire Burger as the recipient of the Femme de Cinema Award. Past honorees include Jamila Zbanic, Lucie Borleteau, Małgorzata Szumowska and Iram Haq.

Besides the award ceremony, the initiative now boasts a lab for female filmmakers, including several workshops and a masterclass which this year will be delivered by Julie Gayet, the French actor, producer and activist. Her two-part documentary “FilmakErs,” co-directed by Mathieu Busson, will also screen at the festival.

Les Arcs will also launch this year the Cinema Green Lab, which will be hosting screenings of environment-themed movies, workshops discussing eco-friendly initiatives in the film industry, and panel discussions about ways to tackle these topics in fiction. As part of this initiative, Les Arcs fest will also hand out an award to a film figure who’s been dedicated to the protection of the environment, or to a movie which raises awareness.

The inaugural edition of the Cinema Green Lab will give the Cinema and Environmental Engagement award to director Edouard Bergeon, producer Christophe Rossignon and actor Guillaume Canet for the politically engaged rural drama “In the Name of the Land.”

Les Arcs Film Festival will run Dec. 14-21.