Cameroonian filmmaker Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s “La Maison du Vent” (“House of the Wind”) has won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which concludes today, 12 September 2026, on the Lido in Venice, Italy.
Orizzonti is one of Venice’s official competitive sections, programmed for international films from emerging filmmakers, independent production, and less widely represented areas of cinema. Its 2026 jury is chaired by French filmmaker Valérie Donzelli, alongside U.S. distributor Peter Becker, Hong Kong-American filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, Mexican filmmaker David Pablos and Italian actor Barbara Ronchi.
Set in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital, “La Maison du Vent” follows Josette, an 80-year-old woman living alone after her children have moved abroad. Her efforts to persuade them to build homes in Cameroon are tied to her hope that they will return. A friendship with Sarah, a younger woman from her neighborhood, changes the life Josette has organized around that expectation. Kouemo Yanghu has said the character is based on his own mother and her experience after her children settled mainly in Europe.
Josette Kwanya, Moudjeu Pouadeu and Adrien Jolivet lead the cast.
The French- and Bafang-language film is a Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia and Qatar co-production. Producers include Cameroon-based Horizons d’Afrique, France’s La Mansarde Cinéma, Belgium’s Steel Fish Pictures and Benin’s Merveilles Production, with the Red Sea Fund and Doha Film Institute also credited.
Paris-based international sales company Celluloid Dreams represents the film worldwide.
The award follows an earlier stop at Venice for the same project. In September 2025, while still in post-production, “La Maison du Vent” participated in Final Cut in Venice, the Venice Production Bridge program supporting unfinished films from African countries and selected Arab markets.