La Rochelle Fiction Festival 2024: the full list of winners

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The series by Doria Tillier and Ovidie were rewarded, while Nicolas Duvauchelle and Guillaume Gouix received the prize for best male performance.

The 26th edition of the La Rochelle fiction festival has given its verdict. The jury chaired by actor Thierry Godard and composed of Sonia Rolland, Caroline Franc, Stéphanie Pillonca, Pauline Gygax, Bastien Burger and Jérémy Nadeau presented its prizes on Saturday evening. France Télévisions is the big winner of this 2024 vintage. Discover the full list of winners.

Table of Contents

Best Unit Award

On trial

Ambre studies law, encouraged by parents of modest means who dream of her becoming a lawyer. When a baby who was not at all planned arrives, the whole family must reinvent itself. The young mother slams the door on the university, then on her parents who judge her irresponsible, to prove to them that she can manage without them. Find a job, an apartment? Not even afraid! She is ready to move mountains for her son! Soon confronted with the reality of the job market, she nevertheless has a hard time accepting the only opportunity that is offered to her: becoming a garbage collector for the city of Paris…

Broadcast on September 25 on France 2.

Best 52 Minute Series

Nismet

Nismet is 15 years old. Her father left her mother a few years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Najoua, Nismet's mother, raises her alone, with the occasional presence of another man, Denis. One night, while Najoua is away, Nismet has to defend herself against Denis's approaches. But wanting to protect her mother, she says nothing. Her relationship with Denis becomes increasingly degraded and she decides to run away. In 4 episodes, she will complete the journey of the first years of her independent life, from the disorderly revolts following a mistreated adolescence, to the beginnings of building her adult life.

Broadcast soon on Arte.

Special mention

Flashback

Elsa Letellier (Constance Gay), an agent of the Scientific Police of Lyon, chose her career in homage to her father, Josselin (Michaël Youn), mysteriously murdered 30 years ago. While the case is about to become statute-barred, Elsa finds herself propelled to 1994 a few months before her father's murder. She will take advantage of this “journey” to get closer to him and become his teammate to prevent his death, without ever revealing her true identity to him. Except that everything opposes them! Their collaboration promises to be explosive…

Broadcast soon on TF1.

Best 26 Minute Series

Iris (by and with Doria Tillier)

It's hard being Iris. Like everyone else, Iris has a head. Only her head… isn't exactly like everyone else's. And neither is her mouth, which says things that other mouths don't say. Her boyfriend, her cousin, a wine merchant, a museum guard… The list of those she pushes to the limit grows longer every day. But in the end, the first to suffer is Iris. And love? When you don't do things like everyone else, you find it far from the clichés…

Broadcast soon on Canal+.

Best Series Under 20 Minutes

Ordinary People – Chapter 2 (from Ovidie)

Romain kept talking about it, he wants to make his own films with an egalitarian perspective. But between grotesque and industrial disaster, his first shoot is summed up as a nightmarish accumulation of constraints and misfortunes, to the point of comedy. Romain comes up against a violence much worse than that of the pornographic industry: the social gaze and the violence of stigmatization. With his faithful friends Isaure and Andrée, he must deal with his new notoriety that overwhelms him. Then the question of post-porn arises and why not the prospect of a relationship.

Broadcast soon on Canal+.

Best foreign French-language series under 20 minutes

Meteorites

Inspired by a true story, the series Meteorites takes us into the world of two sisters of Haitian origin, Léna and Maëlle, placed by the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) in a white Quebec foster family in the heart of the 2000s. Over the course of a summer in Montreal, the stories of the family members intertwine and weave the sensitive web of their daily adventures, filled with happy moments filmed from a child's perspective and others that are heartbreaking.

Best foreign French-language series of more than 20 minutes

FEM

Zav, 17, passionate about hyperpop music, dreams of breaking into the music industry. Zav questions his gender identity, but internally, since he fears the reactions of his family and his small community. His musical quest and his online life allow him to anonymously explore his femininity and evacuate his dysphoria.

Best European Fiction

Lost Boys & Faires

Gabriel is a talented artist who works at the queer club Neverland. Along with his partner Andy, he adopts Jake. We follow Gabriel on this journey of coming of age, as he must confront his childhood trauma if he is to help Jake deal with his own. Fusing queer culture with powerful family drama, Lost Boys & Fairies is bold and heartbreaking, full of humor, redemption, and love.

Best achievement of a unit

Gustave Kervern for I won't let this happen again

Émilie (Yolande Moreau) lives in a nursing home when her son, her one and only support, dies. The old lady then decides to take revenge on all the evil people she has encountered in her life. She takes with her a cleaning lady 20 years her junior, who also has a few scores to settle.

Broadcast soon on Arte.

Best Series Screenplay

Benoît Marchisio and Katell Guillou for Enjoy!

Abel is a delivery man for Enjoy!, a home meal delivery app – a temporary job while he waits to land the internship of his dreams. Yass is an intern at a 24-hour news channel with a reactionary editorial line. Igor is an ambitious young lawyer who dreams of defending great causes. Their destinies will collide in a world governed by speed and efficiency, far from their ideal of social justice.

Best Music

Eric Neveux for Sentinels – Ukraine

February 24, 2022. Russia launches a military offensive on Ukraine while Lieutenant Anaïs Collet is on leave at a GPA clinic in Donbass. She and her partner find themselves trapped with other couples of expectant parents. With the Russian army a few kilometers from the maternity ward, can they still wait for their child to be born or should they flee as quickly as possible?

Coming soon on OCS.

Best Actress

Cecile Bois for Reports

Reports traces the journey of Laurence Jambu, a remarkable woman who will single-handedly confront the entire system associated with early childhood abuse to save her niece Karine, a victim of her own family. She will win her case after more than 10 years of a fierce struggle. The film is a magnificent love story that pays tribute to these two women. Laurence loves Karine like her own children. Karine will do everything to ensure that justice recognizes her aunt's fight.

Coming soon on France 2.

Best Male Performance

Nicolas Duvauchelle and Guillaume Gouix for Fortune of France

Black Périgord, 1557. The Wars of Religion threaten France. Behind the ramparts of the Château de Mespech, surrounded by a dangerous, hostile and intolerant world, the Siorac family fights for its survival and its convictions. There is the life of a community, masters and servants, parents and children, epidemics, adversaries, battles and mourning, science and superstitions and love stories.

Coming soon on France Télévisions.

Young female hope Adami

Capucine Valmary for Blessed be Sistine

After her marriage to a violent fundamentalist Catholic, Sixtine flees her in-laws. Under the name Sophie, she finds refuge in a village and rebuilds her life. But to definitively free herself from the sectarian grip, she must confront it