Tonie Marshall

Born in 1951, Tonie Marshall is one of France’s most popular directors and screenwriters. The daughter of French iconic actress Micheline Presle and of American actor and director William Marshall, she studied dance and acting, and started working in cinema in 1972 with a role in Jacques Demy’s film, A Slightly Pregnant Man (L’Événement le plus important depuis que l’homme a marché sur la lune !). She has since featured in many plays, TV series and films.

She wrote and directed her first film, Pentimento, in 1989 and to date she is the only woman to have been awarded a César for Best Director, alongside another one for Best Screenplay for Vénus Beauté (1999). She has won numerous awards and has always been a staunch defender of women’s right and gender equality.

Woman Up is her latest film, and her third collaboration with Emmanuelle Devos after Nearest to Heaven ( Au plus près du Paradis) in 2001 and Tontaine and Tonton for Arte inIt had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and has been selected at the Edinburgh Film Festival in the European Perspectives Strand.