Anaïs received a grant to support her in writing her next feature film.

What is your artistic background ?
When I was a teenager, my dream was to become a member of the Comédie-Française. I joined the Lycée Molière in Paris, which offered theatre training with that illustrious institution. For two years, under the direction of Yves Steinmetz (a great teacher who, alongside Antoine Vitez, founded the theatre course option in secondary schools), I got the chance to work with members of the company such as Laurent Stocker and Michel Vuillermoz.
Later, I started working at the Théâtre National de Nice and then at private theatres. Then I wanted to try my hand at film and television. It wasn't very fulfilling, because I felt confined to a job role: that of the "nice little brunette". I acted in comedies and comedy series, but that was a long way from what I wanted to do. Out of this frustration came the desire to write and understand how a set worked. I bought myself some theory books and started to learn the art of scriptwriting on my own. With my savings, I self-produced two short films. At the same time, I continued to work as an actress until one day, on my way to a set, I was knocked down by a car. I was hospitalised and it took me a long time to walk again. In the two years that followed, I wrote and directed three short films produced and supported by the CNC, Arte and France 2, all of which had very good festival runs. Then came the burning desire to make my first feature film...

How do you view your profession today?
Making films today is political. Between the post-Covid era and social media platforms, habits have changed very quickly. We now live in a 'multi-screen' world, in which audiences are constantly bombarded with content. Almost every story has already been told... and that is not a problem at all! What makes a good film is not so much the story as the way the filmmaker looks at it. From the blockbuster to the budget film, the experience of cinema is always the same : discovering a unique way of looking at the world. If cinema is to stand on its own two feet, it is our responsibility as 'makers' of cinema to be very vigilant on this issue. In this age of artificial intelligence and programmatic narratives, we need more than ever to have a plurality of sensibilities, imaginations and universes.
I have also recently become aware of what "cultural exception" means. Talking to other filmmakers on my travels to present L’Homme d’Argile made me realise just how lucky we are in France. Because even if the road is long and difficult, there are a huge number of mechanisms which support us, from writing to production, which is really not the case in many countries. Particularly in the United States and India, for example, where the Hollywood and Bollywood economies reign supreme and make the emergence and existence of independent films particularly difficult.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
With the same all-consuming desire to make films, but with more of the means to make them.

Interview conducted in 2023​
Photography credit: Lys Arango