Her debut feature 'Tiger Stripes' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize. Photo: Amanda Nell Eu/Instagram
The 2024 Women In Motion Emerging Talent Award has been presented to Malaysian filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu, who was selected by the 2023 awardee, Swiss director Carmen Jaquier.
Since 2019, a promising female director has been chosen by the preceding winner to receive this prize, which includes a grant of €50,000 (RM255,041) to support her next film project.
Eu, 38, is the writer-director of the 2023 Malay-language horror film Tiger Stripes. Her debut feature premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize.
It was the first Malaysian film directed by a woman to premiere at Cannes and the first by a Malaysian to win a top prize at Cannes.
Tiger Stripes stars Zafreen Zairiza as a pre-teen who, at the onset of puberty, discovers a strange, disturbing force erupting from within.
In a press statement, Eu said she feels “incredibly honoured”, adding: “I am already so grateful that I get to have my voice and use it and express it in a way that is free to me, so to receive this recognition is really special.
“Thank you to the big Tiger family – everyone involved in putting together Tiger Stripes – I think this film is a representation of the freedom that I am talking about and our potential to be beautiful bad-a** creatures in this world, if we can love, accept and listen to each other more.”
The Women In Motion Emerging Talent Award is presented by global luxury group Kering and the Cannes Film Festival. The presentation will take place during the Women In Motion dinner at the festival, which runs from May 14 to 25.
Past award winners include Leyla Bouzid (Tunisia), Gaya Jiji (Syria), Ida Panahandeh (Iran), Maysaloun Hamoud (Palestine) and Carla Simon (Spain).
Dame Donna Langley, chairman of the NBCUniversal Studio Group and chief content officer, will receive the Women In Motion Award. Last year's winner in this category was Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh.
Both awards will be presented by Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering.
In 2015, Kering launched Women In Motion at the Cannes Film Festival to highlight women in cinema, where gender inequalities still prevail. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
