French director Anna Cazenave Cambet first came to Cannes in 2016 as a student with a short film called Gabber Lover, which won the Queer Palm award. With two feature films under her belt, she returned to the Croisette in 2026 as one of the "10 to Watch" rising French stars. RFI spoke to her about finding her place as a young woman in the industry, and her hopes for the future of cinema.
A year before she graduated from Paris's prestigious La Fémis film school in 2017, Cambet showed her first short film, Gabber Lover, at Cannes in the student filmmakers' section La Cinef.
She made a second short film Iemanja – Cœur océan a year later, and in 2020 directed her first full-length feature, De l’or pour les chiens ("Gold for Dogs"), which earned the Cannes Critics' Week Label.
She returned to the Croisette in 2025 with Love me Tender, in the Un Certain Regard section, adapted from the novel of the same name by Constance Debré – in which Vicky Krieps starred as Clémence, a married woman who loses custody of her son when she reveals that she is a lesbian.
This year, Cambet was back in Cannes alongside nine other young directors, actors and screenwriters chosen by Unifrance as ambassadors to promote French film and TV content worldwide.
RFI: Each year in Cannes, there is controversy over women's access to the film industry and how present they are in the official selection. Have you ever felt that being a woman stopped you from advancing in your career?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: I didn't feel like I was being held back in my career, but I do feel it's harder. I feel like I always have to justify myself. I feel that when I arrive in certain places, people still ask if I'm the actress – they assume I'm the actress. And then I also feel, and see – and the statistics speak for themselves – that it's very difficult. It might be easier to make a first film, but making a second, a third... that's where things get complicated. So it's still a reality: the difficulty of being a female filmmaker.
I think things are changing. The new generations in film schools are more gender-balanced, and so there's a good chance this will lead to new, more diverse generations. But there's still a lot of work to be done. In the journalistic sphere... I won't give specific examples but I've had two or three rather surprising encounters there, with men who were really keen to put me in my place as a young woman. They didn't respect me at all. So you have to be prepared, you have to be resilient, you have to be there, you can't give up.
But it's true that it's definitely more difficult. It's simply more difficult in our society to hold positions of power. You're always suspected of trying to build a career, of being ambitious. So things are moving forward, but slowly.
RFI: What does it mean to be here in Cannes? You've been before, but what does it represent for you, being in this industry?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: Being in Cannes with our films, finally having the chance to present them here, is an immense joy. It's a place to celebrate cinema, the cinema of the whole world. It's also the opportunity to bring our films to life in a unique setting where the whole world is here to see them. It's an opening to the world. We meet journalists and critics from all over the world.
And then we engage in discussions about cinema. From evening to morning, or rather from morning to evening, depending on our schedules with our colleagues. So that's truly wonderful. And then there's the inspiration. We see magnificent films almost every day if we play our cards right. So that, too, is very fortunate.
RFI: Love Me Tender has had quite an incredible journey, and won an award at the American French Film Festival. Did you expect such a response to this film?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: I've been travelling with the film all this past year. I think I've spent more time on planes than at home. My carbon footprint is absolutely catastrophic. I'm going to slow down a bit, but it's been great. It's been an immense joy to be able to accompany it to very different places, in front of very different audiences. We've been all over the world with it.
We were also part of the Prix Lux, which is a European prize that allows people to see films without paying for tickets in theatres. That also allows us to reach audiences who aren't necessarily used to going to the cinema. And that's something I'm very passionate about: being able to put cinema back in a place that's a place for everyone. With ticket prices and other things, it is perhaps becoming a little more difficult for some people.
There's a story I don't usually tell, but it's something I often think about. When my parents met, they really didn't have any money, so they lived in a tiny apartment, and this tiny apartment was above a movie theatre. And they always tell me that they went to the movies every day, that it was their only luxury. But it was their luxury.
I make [films] so they'll be seen in theatres as much as possible. And I like thinking about the audience. Because maybe we're losing that habit these days, going to the movies. It's a habit that's comforting and soothing. I go to the cinema a lot, and I go because it's the place where I feel good, the place where everything stops a little and where you can slip into a story. It's a truly magnificent medium.
RFI: Is there a particular memory from this film shoot that stands out?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: So many memories come to mind because it was such an intense shoot. We filmed for 36 days with incredibly long working days. I'm lucky enough to have worked with the same team since my first film, so if I had to pick one memory that stands out, it would be the first morning when I met up with the film crew.
We were filming outdoors, very close to my home. So we walked there, and I found myself on set facing them. In the years between my previous film and this one, we continued to make films, we grew, we gained experience, and [when] I saw them preparing the set for that first day of shooting, I was so incredibly moved to think that we were working together again.
On my first film, we were all very young and it was kind of like the first time for all of us. To see them again like that was a very powerful, intense emotion. And then after that, I have loads of stories. We jammed a whole neighborhood with a crane, some kind of lifting system that got stuck. The whole area was blocked. We had two or three little adventures like that.
RFI: What message do you have for young people coming up in this profession?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: I think there will always be stories to tell. I'm very curious about films from the new generation. I think our world is moving very fast, and it's not doing very well. We all have worries and questions about what comes next, but I think there will always be more to tell. I don't really believe in the collapse of cinema.
I think that the way we consume cinema is indeed changing. I'd like young people to rediscover it, including those who want to work in film. I'd like them to rediscover the desire to go to the cinema, to see films in movie theatres. I think it really changes the experience, and it's something we should do. If we're not used to it, then we should push ourselves a little and bring our friends along, do it in a group, go to the movies with a group of friends. That's really joyful. So, that's perhaps the advice I would give them.
RFI: What's on the cards in terms of future projects?
Anna Cazenave Cambet: I have several things in my sights and I need to make some choices. As I was saying, I've travelled a lot these past few months. I've been very absent and haven't had the space to be writing, to be immersed in the material, to be working.
So I'm making room for that now, so I can work and make the right choices. It's a work in progress, I have lots of very exciting things coming up and I'm also trying to make some space to write for others. It's something I've always done a little bit, and I'd like to write a bit more for other directors as well.
