Ben'Imana, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's first feature, won the FIPRESCI Award at the 79th Cannes Film Festival after premiering in Un Certain Regard.
The FIPRESCI Award is the International Critics' Prize, given by a jury from the International Federation of Film Critics. The prize exists to support film art and encourage new and young cinema, and its Cannes presence dates back to the festival's first edition in 1946.
Ben'Imana also won the Caméra d'Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The Caméra d'Or is Cannes' prize for the best first feature across the Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight, and Critics' Week.
Ben'imana is set in Rwanda in 2012 and follows Vénéranda, a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi who is deeply involved in community-led processes of justice and reconciliation. As she navigates mounting pressure in her work, a personal crisis within her own family forces her to confront the limits of her convictions.
It is the first film by a Rwandan director to be selected for the Cannes Official Selection. Munyurangabo (2007), the only prior Rwandan Cannes title, was directed by Korean American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung.
Dusabejambo was born in Kigali in 1987, trained as an electrical and telecommunications engineer, and has been making short films since 2011, with multiple Tanit Bronze awards at Carthage and festival wins in Zanzibar and Madagascar.
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