FOLCS was proud to partner with IFC Films for an advance screening of Happening, a new film starring Anamaria Vartolomei that has taken the festival circuit by storm.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, Happening centers on Anne, a bright young woman studying in France in 1963. When Anne falls pregnant, her ability to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her family’s working-class background is directly threatened. With her belly growing and final exams fast approaching, Anne resolves to act. Confronting intense shame from her peers and grave risks to her own life, Anne faces the possibility of an added consequence for her condition: prison.
On April 26, 2022, FOLCS was joined by director/screenwriter Audrey Diwan and lead actress Anamaria Vartolomei for a conversation on this rivetingly intimate film, and the many parallels between the reality of Happening protagonist “Anne” in 1963, and that of women today.
FOLCS was proud to produce this conversation in partnership with SheNYC Arts.
Audrey Diwan
Director, Screenwriter
Audrey Diwan is a French director of Lebanese origin, who began her career studying journalism and political science, before writing and publishing several novels (La Fabrication d’un mensonge, De l’autre côté de l’été…). Deciding to devote herself to screenwriting, Diwan penned a number of scripts for Cédric Jimenez (The Connection, The Man With the Iron Heart, The Stronghold) and collaborated with directors Teddy Lussi Modeste, Gilles Lellouche and Valérie Donzelli.
As a director, she has established a very personal and intimate vision. Her feature debut, Losing It (2019) starred Pio Marmaï and Céline Sallette. Her second, Happening, adapted from Annie Ernaux’s book recounting her illegal abortion in the 1960s won the coveted Golden Lion at the 78th Venice Film Festival and features a cast of stellar emerging French acting talent (Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet-Klein, Luana Bajrami). Happening will continue to screen at festivals around the globe and will be released theatrically in the US by leading independent distributor IFC Films in 2022.
Anamaria Vartolomei
Actress
Anamaria Vartolomei is a French-Romanian actress who made her debut at age 11 starring alongside Isabelle Huppert in Eva Ionesco’s My Little Princess (2001), for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Festival de la Ciotat the following year.
In 2014, she appeared with Charlotte Gainsbourg in Jacky in the Kingdom of Women, directed by Riad Sattouf. In 2020, she appeared in Martin Provost’s How to Be a Good Wife and Christophe Blanc’s Just Kids. Her latest role is the lead in 2021 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner Happening, directed by Audrey Diwan and adapted from Annie Ernaux’s 1960s-set memoir L’événement.
For her performance in Happening, Vartolomei won the 2022 Lumières Award for Best Actress and the 2022 César Award for Most Promising Actress, in addition to being honored as a 2022 Berlinale European Shooting Star.