Oulaya Amamra, Houda Benyamina and Deborah Lukumuena of DIVINES — L-R: Oulaya Amamra, director Houda Benyamina and Deborah Lukumuena of DIVINES

The 22nd Lumières Awards ceremony, which is essentially the France equivalent of the Golden Globes here in the USA, presented by the Académie des Lumières, was held at the Théâtre de la Madeleine in Paris on January 30, 2017 to honor the best in French films of 2016. Some 60 journalists hailing from the international press corps in France voted in the Lumière Awards.

Of note, with respect to this blog’s interests, the critically acclaimed and much talked-about films at last year’s Cannes film festival, described as one of the best young-adult films to come out of France in recent years, French-Moroccan drama “Divines” picked up 2 trophies: Best Female Newcomer and Best First Film.

Oulaya Amamra and Déborah Lukumuena, the young stars of the film, both shared the Best Female Newcomer prize; and of course, the dramatic feature, written and directed by French filmmaker of Moroccan descent Houda Benyamina, won Best First Film.

"Divines" starring cast — “Divines” starring cast; L-R: Déborah Lukumuena, Oulaya Amamra, Jisca Kalvanda

“Divines” tells the story of Dounia, a tough but naive teenager living in the ‘hood, who sees getting rich or dying trying as her most viable option to get out. Director Benyamina’s directorial debut received rave reviews from critics and was awarded the Caméra d’Or, an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the event’s selections. Critics heaped praise on Oulaya Amamra’s (sister of the filmmaker) “breakout” performance as Dounia, the star of the film, and her co-star Déborah Lukumuena.

The film has momentum going into the César Awards (France’s equivalent of the Oscars), as the filmmaker, the star and co-star of the film are all nominated for Césars as well, in the Best Director, Best New Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories respectively. It’s also nominated for Best Film and Best Best Original Screenplay. In total, the film picked up 7 César Awards nominations.

The 2017 César Awards ceremony will be held on February 24, 2017.

“Divines” was picked up by Netflix and is available to stream for USA audiences, so check it out and see what all the hype is about!

In terms of other Lumières Awards winners of African descent, there aren’t any. Check out the full list of winners here.

A trailer for “Divines” follows below:

Lumières Awards

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week