French-Senegalese actress and director, Mati Diop, has won the Grand Prix award, equivalent of a silver prize, for her film Atlantics at the Cannes Film Festival.
She becomes the first black female director to win an award in the festival’s 72-year history.
The film, Atlantics, exposed sexual politics among young migrants.
The Grand Prix award is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or.
Diop, 36, on receiving the award said she was a “little sad” to make history as the first woman of African descent to even have a film screened at the festival.
“My first feeling to be the first black female director was a little sadness that this only happened today in 2019,” she said.
“I knew it as I obviously don’t know any black women who came here before, and I knew it but it’s always a reminder that so much work needs to be done still.”
South Korean director, Bong Joon-ho, became first Korean to win Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or, for his film Parasite, a dark comedy that explores the dynamics of social class.
