LUX Audience Award 2025: DAHOMEY

Scandinavia House 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY, United States

Directed by Mati Diop

France, Senegal, Benin | 2024 | 67 min | Documentary

November 2021. Twenty-six royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to leave Paris to return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Along with thousands of others, these artefacts were plundered by French colonial troops in 1892. But what attitude to adopt to these ancestors’ homecoming in a country that had to forge ahead in their absence? The debate rages among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Director Mati Diop was born in Paris on June 22nd, 1982. Since the early 2000s, she has built an eclectic body of work that has won awards at various international festivals. With her first feature film Atlantics (2019), winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival followed by Dahomey (2024) awarded by The Golden Bear of Berlinale, she has established herself as one of the leading auteurs of international cinema and of a new wave in African and diasporic cinema.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lKKued7Dyk&t=7s

The LUX Audience Award is a joint initiative of the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in collaboration with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas. It is the largest audience award worldwide and the only film prize in the world where citizens together with Members of the European Parliament -with each group weighting 50% -can decide who the winner will be by rating the nominated films online.