Mati Diop’s Dahomey is one of 12 documentary films eligible for the 2024 European Film Awards, which will be held on December 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The documentary traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin, while exploring cultural heritage, collective memory, and the ongoing debate over the restitution of looted artifacts. In Diop’s film, a group of students from the University of Abomey-Calavi evaluate the repatriation.
An international co-production involving France, Senegal, and Benin, Dahomey has already enjoyed a glorious reception since its world premiere at the Berlinale, where it won the festival’s biggest award, the Golden Bear.
Diop, who won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, wrote, directed, and coproduced the film. Joséphine Drouin Viallard was responsible for the film’s cinematography and Gabriel Gonzalez handled editing. The documentary is distributed by Les Films du Losange in France and Sudu Connexion in Africa. Eve Robin and Judith Lou Lévy offer additional production.
Africa-related Titles
Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is also included in the list of eligible documentaries. The Belgian filmmaker’s film covers the turbulence of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 1960s and the United States and its CIA’s involvement in the tragedy. It highlights the use of jazz musicians as an instrument of deceptive diplomacy during the Cold War.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is produced by Onomatopee Films and Warboys Films. It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
In the coming weeks, the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy will begin screening the selected films, which also include feature films. The final nominations, determined by the votes of all Academy members, are scheduled to be announced on November 5. Members of the European Film Academy will then cast final votes, ahead of the big ceremony in Switzerland.
So far, Mo Harawe’s The Village Next To Paradise and Mati Diop’s Dahomey are the only eligible films with African countries listed as production countries. Johan Gimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and Boris Lojkine’s Story of Souleymane are concerned with Africa but were made by production companies outside of the continent.
