CANNES 2023 Awards
Four Daughters and The Mother of All Lies scoop Cannes’ Golden Eye

by Fabien Lemercier, cineuropa
27/05/2023

CANNES 2023: The films by Kaouther Ben Hania and Asmae El Moudir have split the award for the best documentary screened at Cannes.

The jury applauds the courage and imagination of Kaouther Ben Hania and Asmae El Moudir, who boldly invent devices that renew the language of reality, exploring and confronting the chaos of the world. They strongly and determinedly affirm that documentary is a major genre in cinema.

The jury also wishes to acknowledge the bravery of Afghan women in Sahra Mani's film Bread and Roses, who, at the risk of their lives, use mobile phones as a weapon for mass awareness.”

Run by SCAM and serving to single out the best documentaries screened in the various selections on the Croisette at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Eye Award, handed out this year by a jury chaired by US filmmaker Kirsten Johnson (who was flanked by Ovidie, Sophie Faucher, Pedro Pimenta and Jean-Claude Raspiengeas), was conferred upon two films this year: Four Daughters by Tunisia’s Kaouther Ben Hania and The Mother of All Lies by Morocco’s Asmae El Moudir.


‘Four Daughters’ And ‘The Mother Of All Lies’ Share L’Oeil d’Or, Top Documentary Prize At Cannes

Presented in the official competition, Four Daughters was produced by France’s Tanit Films, Tunisia’s Cinétéléfilms and Germany’s Twenty Twenty Vision, and was co-produced by ZDF/Arte. Its international sales are handled by The Party Film Sales.

The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir, which was already rewarded with the Un Certain Regard Directing Prize yesterday evening (see the news), is sold internationally by Austria’s Autlook Filmsales.

The jury statement reads as follows: “The documentary is a tool of resistance and a laboratory for the most liberated forms of cinema. Two female directors have embraced it to break the silences and overcome the traumas passed down from generation to generation. The jury applauds the courage and imagination of Kaouther Ben Hania and Asmae El Moudir, who boldly invent devices that renew the language of reality, exploring and confronting the chaos of the world. They strongly and determinedly affirm that documentary is a major genre in cinema. The jury also wishes to acknowledge the bravery of Afghan women in Sahra Mani's film Bread and Roses, who, at the risk of their lives, use mobile phones as a weapon for mass awareness.”

Four Daughters by Kaouther Ben Hania (left) and The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir

Among the parallel awards, CICAE's Arthouse Cinema Award was bestowed upon La chimera by Italy's Alice Rohrwacher, with a Special Mention going to Fallen Leaves by Finland's Aki Kaurismäki.

The FIPRESCI Awards went to Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest in the Competition, Felipe Gálvez's The Settlers in the Un Certain Regard section and Lillah Halla's Power Alley in the parallel selections.

(Translated from French)