Julia Ducournau had one of the most promising and surprising debuts as a feature film director in the last decades with Raw (Grave in original French language) (2016), a movie swimming between seas of body-horror, cannibalism and other sorts of horror-thriller in a very caring form and delicate dealing with the characters. Besides the stupid controversy of people passing out during the screenings of the movie in some festivals, it is undoubtful that Raw (2016) is one of those jewels of the genre that rarely we have the joy to encounter. We had the chance to watch it at Sitges Film Festival 2016 in one of its early screenings and you can read the review here.
Raw (2016) achieved a good bunch of awards and nominations in 2016, including winning the FIPRESCI Prize at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Director at Austin Fantastic Fest, and Best Feature Length European Film at Sitges Film Festival. It was compared with many classic titles of the genre, and even being called “Suspiria (1977) meets Ginger Snaps (2000) in a muscular yet elegant campus cannibal horror from bright new talent Julia Ducournau” by Variety Magazine.
After the astonishing first movie, we haven’t heard anything from Julia Ducournau for three years. She was credited as the scenario consultant for French drama A Taste of Ink (2016), although that was pretty much it. But now it has been announced that she is already deep into pre-production of what will be her follow-up film, Titane (2020). Not much is known about its plot, so we will have to wait until next year 2020 to see the shape of her new work.
Before shocking the world of horror with Raw (2016), Julia Ducournau already got some attention in the underground level with her fantasy short film Junior (2011), winner of the Small Golden Rail in Cannes Film Festival 2011 where she was also nominated for the Discovery Award.
The distribution rights for her upcoming movie Titane (2020) have already been purchased by NEON. Spokespeople of the company have said about the deal “Raw (2016) was one of the most earth-shattering debut films in recent memory, and we’ve been waiting for Julia’s next film ever since”. Well, honestly, not only the people from NEON have been waiting for Julia Ducournau’s next film. I am sure all our readers are also on that list.
