Euzhan Palcy

Euzhan Palcy is a trailblazing Martinican film director, screenwriter, and producer whose work has reshaped global cinema by foregrounding Black experiences, colonial histories, and gender politics. Born on 13 January 1958 in Martinique, France, Palcy discovered a love for storytelling at age ten after being outraged by the misrepresentation of Black people on screen, a conviction she would pursue through poetry, television, and eventually feature filmmaking. After moving to Paris in 1975 to study French literature, theater, and cinematography at the École nationale supérieure Louis‑Lumière, she secured mentorship from New Wave legend François Truffaut, which proved instrumental in the creation of her breakthrough debut, Sugar Cane Alley (1983). Shot for under one million dollars, the film portrays life on a 1930s Martinique sugar‑cane plantation through a young boy’s eyes, earning the Venice Film Festival Silver Lion, a César Award for Best First Feature, and more than seventeen international honors, establishing Palcy as the first Black director to win a French Oscar. In 1989 she shattered another barrier with A Dry White Season, the first Hollywood‑backed feature directed by a Black woman, starring Marlon Brando—who returned from retirement to act for free—and earning Brando an Academy Award nomination. Palcy’s commitment to authenticity led her to clandestinely film in apartheid‑era South Africa, using covert travel methods to bring genuine voices to the screen. Beyond narrative cinema, she has produced acclaimed documentaries such as Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History and television movies like Ruby Bridges (1998), receiving the Christopher Award, Humanitas Prize, and a Silver Gavel Award for later work. In 2022 the Academy honored her with an Honorary Oscar, recognizing a career marked by relentless advocacy, genre‑spanning innovation, and a profound dedication to healing historical wounds through visual storytelling.