Julia Ducournau

Julia Ducournau attended La Fémis and studied screenwriting. Her first film, Junior, is about a girl who “after contracting a stomach bug” began to “shed her skin” like a snake.[1] In 2011, Junior won the Petit Rail d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.[2] In 2012, Ducournau released a TV-film titled Mange. This film follows a recovering bulimic who is seeking “revenge on her college tormentor.”[1] Her first feature film Raw, is her most successful to date.[3][1] The project had been developed through the TorinoFilmLab Framework programme in 2013. Raw[4][5][6][7] was screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.[8] In October 2016, Raw won the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature at the London Film Festival.[9] Per David Fear of the Rolling Stones, Raw is a contender for the "best horror movie of the decade."[10] In the fall of 2019, Ducournau’s newest film Titane was bought by Neon. This purchase is one of a few, as the film distributor attempts to broaden its French cinematographic library.[11]

According to the scholar Aldana Xavier, horror films have historically been a male enterprise. These films are made for males, directed by males, and stereotypically depict females.[12] However, female directors such as Julia Ducournau have been pushing back against these societal assumptions. Despite this, scholar Isabella Maher illustrates that Ducournau has been criticized for reinforcing “sexist ideas of young women as narcissistic, spiteful and competitive" within her films.[13] Per Xavier, female directors that fall under this “postfeminist horror cinema” like Julia Ducournau, often find that their gender outshines their work.[13] During interviews with journalists, their gender appears to be the main topic of conversation rather than the substance of their work. As stated by Maher, directors like Ducournau want to be thought of as directors, not female directors, and their work be treated accordingly.[13] Thus, although a lot of work has been done to progress the horror industry towards gender parity but there is still a lot more work that needs to be done to achieve equality.

Xavier categorizes Ducournau's films as "Gothic Horror Heroinism."[12] This is illustrated by "graphic body horror" shown in all of her films.[1][12] According to Ducournau, her "flesh fascination stems from her childhood" since both her parents are doctors.[1] Per Ducournau, the way in which her parents spoke about the human body growing up informed her artistic expression within her films. For instance, she outlines in an interview with the Guardian that "doctors have this very upfront yet distant way of talking about bodies and death."[1] Alex Godfrey, Guardian journalist, illustrates this "flesh fascination" can be seen through her "unflinching" use of the camera in Raw, with "unforgiving" closeups and "atrocities un-glorified."[1]

• Julia Ducournau on IMDb