Céline Sciamma

Céline Sciamma (; born 12 November 1978) is a French filmmaker. A common theme in her films is the study of the French society through fluidity of gender, sexual identity among girls and women, and the female gaze.

She is most known for her feature films Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), Girlhood (2014), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), and Petite Maman (2021). Sciamma has received numerous accolades for her films, including two BAFTA nominations for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Early life and education Sciamma was born on 12 November 1978 and raised in Cergy-Pontoise, a suburb of Paris. Her father, Dominique Sciamma, a former AI researcher and IT professional, is now a figure of design education, and her brother, Laurent Sciamma, is a stand-up performer and graphic designer.

Before attending La Fémis, the French film school where she studied from 2001 to 2005, Sciamma earned her master's degree in French literature at Paris Nanterre University. As a child, she was an avid reader, and she became interested in film as a teenager. Xavier Beauvois, who was chairman of the evaluation panel, and could be considered her mentor, persuaded her to make the film. A year after finishing school, she began shooting the film in her hometown.

Career 2000s Sciamma started her career writing the short films Les Premières Communions (2004) and Cache ta joie (2006). Her feature film debut, Water Lilies, was released in 2007. The French title, Naissance des pieuvres, means "Birth of the Octopuses", but was altered for international release. The film's script was Sciamma's senior project at La Fémis, although when she wrote it, Sciamma did not intend to direct it. The film, shot in Cergy, explores the world of synchronized swimming. Based on Sciamma's own encounter with the sport, the protagonist explores her burgeoning sexuality and attraction to the team's captain. Water Lilies was selected for screening in the section Un certain regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It won the Louis Delluc award for a first film.

Sciamma directed her first short film, Pauline, in 2009 as part of a government anti-homophobia campaign called ‘Five films against homophobia’. Sciamma wrote the script in three weeks, completed casting in three weeks, and shot the film in 20 days. It also played at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In interviews, Sciamma said that Girlhood would be her last coming-of-age film and that she considered it, Water Lilies, and Tomboy a trilogy. The film, a coming-of-age film about a young woman who leaves school and joins a gang, received criticism for centering Black experiences and featuring a mostly Black cast but being directed and made by a mostly white crew. In between directing her own films, she continues to work as a screenwriter for other directors. She was sought after by André Téchiné, whose work Sciamma admired as a youth, to co-write the screenplay for his 2016 film Being 17. She also adapted the novel Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette) into a screenplay for a stop-motion animated film.

Sciamma's fourth feature film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, began shooting in 2018. It premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay.

2020s Sciamma shot her fifth feature, Petite Maman, in 2020; it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in March 2021. It also screened at the 2021 San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. That year she also co-wrote the 2021 film Paris, 13th District alongside Jacques Audiard and Léa Mysius.

In February of 2026, film distribution company MK2 Films acquired the rights to Sciamma's complete filmography. This led MK2 to premiere a re-edited version of her 2011 film Tomboy at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, where she was awarded an Honorary Teddy Award for her cultural and artistic impact in queer cinema. This agreement completed MK2's collection of Sciamma's filmography, with the company distributing all of her previous films from Water Lillies to Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Style and themes Sciamma frequently collaborates with Para One, who has scored all her films and directed some of her scripts. She frequently collaborates with cinematographer Crystel Fournier, who worked on Sciamma's Girlhood trilogy, among others.

She is noted for casting non-professional actors in her films, and also frequently cast Adèle Haenel, who appeared in Water Lilies, Pauline, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Sciamma does not believe in the idea of a muse for her pieces, and despite her personal relationship with Haenel, says that the relationships on screen are of collaboration and subversion, not fascination.

Sciamma has cited David Lynch as a strong influence, along with seeing Virginia Woolf as "the greatest novelist" and Chantal Akerman as "one of the most important filmmakers". Sciamma cites Hayao Miyazaki as an inspiration for filmmaking, as well as Penny Marshall's Big (1988), particularly for her film Petite Maman. Sciamma notes these filmmakers focus on themes of nature and the treatment of it as catalysts for the film.

Sciamma has spoken about the metaphorical purpose of using synchronized swimming in Water Lilies, which she said "reveals a lot about the job of being a girl," due to the tension between athleticism and feminine aesthetics. Her films look at lesbianism and queerness, and how this is represented on screen. She focuses on the idea of the body, and how touch is related to it within cinema. Sciamma’s notable in her thematic elements for female gaze, and many scholars have cited her as a pioneer for creating a new way of seeing women in media.

Activism Sciamma is a feminist. She was a founding member of the French branch of the 50/50 by 2020 movement, a group of French film industry professionals advocating for gender parity in film by the year 2020.

She has contributed heavily to discourse with cinema on the female gaze. Sciamma uses her platform to speak about the restrictions of the male gaze and present movies that elevate the female gaze. She sees her work, particularly Portrait of a Lady on Fire, as a manifesto of the female gaze. Sciamma said in an interview: "That's why the male gaze is obsessed with representing lesbians, for instance. It's a way to control it. Our stories are powerful because they are dangerous. We are dangerous. So it's a very good strategy to despise us—to undermine us—because it's giving us less leverage for a very powerful political dynamic".

Sciamma has said that "cinema is always political" and that creating films by women and about women is a political act. In 2018, she co-organised and participated in the women's protest against inequality at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival alongside many notable women in film, including Agnès Varda, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, and Léa Seydoux. This protest campaigned for gender equality in the film industry.

In 2020 Sciamma and the Portrait of a Lady on Fire team joined Haenel in walking out of the 45th César Awards after Roman Polanski won the award for Best Director. In 1977, Polanski was arrested and charged with six offences against a 13-year-old girl. Haenel had previously spoken out about experiencing sexual harassment by director Christopher Ruggia. In 2014, Adèle Haenel publicly acknowledged that she was in a relationship with Sciamma in her acceptance speech for her César Award. The two met on the set of Water Lilies and started dating sometime after. Sciamma was 28 years old and Haenel was only 17 when they first met. The couple parted ways, amicably, sometime before the filming of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which also starred Haenel.

Filmography Year English title Original title Director Writer Actor Notes 2004 Les Premières Communions Short film 2006 Cache ta joie Short film 2007 Water Lilies Naissance des Pieuvres 2009 Pauline Short film 2010 Ivory Tower 2011 Tomboy 2014 Bird People Screenplay consultant Mademoiselle Role: Fille boîte; Short film Girlhood Bande de filles Young Tiger Bébé Tigre Storyline consultant 2016 Being 17 Quand on a 17 ans My Life as a Courgette Ma vie de Courgette 2018 With the Wind Collaborating writer 2019 Portrait of a Lady on Fire Portrait de la jeune fille en feu 2021 Petite Maman Paris, 13th District Les Olympiades Collaborating writer 2023 This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet Short film 2024 The Balconettes Les Femmes au balcon

Accolades