Sébastien Lifshitz’s career is unique in the panorama of both authorial cinema and queer culture.
From the exploration of instincts and search for pleasure in Les corps ouverts, to the romantic dimension of teenage coming out in Presque rien; from the strong, independent portrayal of a transsexual woman in Wild Side, to the reelaboration of the traditional themes of French cinema in Plein sud.
From the precious, sensitive portraits of Les invisibles, to political memory becoming a way to exorcise death in Les vies de Thérèse, to the overwhelming yet delicate chronicle of gender dysphoria in Petite fille.
Lifshitz shows the same equal effective craftmanship and skill whether he deals with fiction, television language, or the spontaneity of documentary, seamlessly switching from short to medium-length to feature films.
His career as a director and a screenwriter was met with enthusiastic critical reception and rewarded with several international accolades in Cannes, Berlin and Locarno, just to name a few.
Lifshitz managed to narrate the LGBTQ universe through the personal gaze of a filmmaker who, avoiding the traps of exploitation and never forgetting the political dimension of his stories, sublimely depicts vivid portraits whose authenticity, moral gaze and modesty never cease to amaze; his works transcend their own format, becoming “much more than mere works of fiction” and “much more than just documentaries”.
For these reasons we are proud to present Sébastien Lifshitz with the Queer Lion Award for Career Achievement.
