Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Women Winners @ Cannes 2026 – Diane Carson reports

May 27, 2026May 31, 2026 Diane Carson Camera d’Or, geena davis, Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Monia Chokri, Tao Okamoto, Un Certain Regard, Valeska Grisebach, Virginie Efira

The 79th Cannes Film Festival award ceremony held May 23, 2026, began on a high note with presenter Geena Davis noting that women have truly made advances in the filmmaking world. Smiling, she pointed to the 2026 official poster, a tribute to Thelma and Louise which premiered May 1991 at Cannes. There self-assuredly sit Geena Davis/Thelma and Susan Surandon/Louise atop the front seats of their iconic 1966 Ford thunderbird convertible, the car in which they escaped, at least for a while, patriarchal power. Honoring the film’s thirty-five year anniversary, the poster celebrates the pair’s enduring friendship, their challenge to male dictates, and assertion of their power. protagonist.

Festivals Reviews

BEN’IMANA (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 23, 2026May 23, 2026 Diane Carson Ben'Imana, Cannes 2026, Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi, Hutus, Kesia Kelly Nishimwe, Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo, reconciliation, Rwandan films, Tutsis, Un Certain Regard

In Ben’Imana, Rwandan writer/director Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo integrates the personal with the political to gain specificity for a collective trauma. The title Ben’Imana means “the children of God,” signifying that the Hutus and Tutsis shared their language and culture, a paired community until the tragic 1994 Tutsi genocide at the hands of the Hutu militia massacre. Now, in 2012, reconciliation proceeds through public trials. With hopes that forgiveness will help heal the legacy of the massacre of up to a million people,