The Jean Renoir Prize for High School Students is awarded to Goodbye Julia from Mohamed Kordofani.
It also rewards reviews (written, audio or audiovisual) produced by students. The Jean Renoir Prize for high school students is organized by the Ministry of National Education and Youth in partnership with the CNC, with the support of the FNCF and the Entraide du cinéma et des spectacles, and with the participation of the CEMEA, Cahiers du cinéma, Positif and So Film.
Through this system, all partners wish to stimulate students’ ability to have a reasoned judgment on works and give them a taste for discovering a diversity of films in cinemas.
In 2023-2024, the 1,300 participating students saw the following films in their partner cinemas, selected for them by a committee made up of education and cinema professionals:
• The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley
• Linda wants chicken! by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach
• The Kidnapping of Marco Bellocchio
• Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani
• Making of by Cédric Kahn
• The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir
• Chronicles of Tehran by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami
Meeting at La Fémis on May 6 and 7, 2024, two students per class participated in the deliberations to award the Jean Renoir prize for high school students, following meetings with representatives of each film (director, producer and/or distributor).
The Jean Renoir Prize for high school students was awarded to Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani, released on November 8, 2023, distributed by ARP Sélection. The film is thus included from the start of the 2025 school year in the High School and Cinema Apprentices catalog which benefits 400,000 students across France each year.
With Ger Duany, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma
Original title Wadaean Julia
Synopsis. A strange friendship links a rich Muslim Sudanese woman from the North to a Christian Sudanese woman from the South who is destitute after the death of her husband. What is behind the concern of one towards the other?
A call for unity
With Goodbye Julia, Mohamed Kordofani wants to launch “an appeal to maintain the unity of what remains of Sudan, which is still stuck in the same dilemma, and which should be addressed at several levels”. According to him, it is the role of art to raise awareness. “Reconciliation must be a national project to preserve what remains of Sudan and to build a new national identity, built on values of humanity, coexistence and justice rather than race, tribe and gender,” he hopes. he.
Overcome your fear
Mohamed Kordofani admits to having been terrified to have dealt with such a sensitive subject in cinema, but his convictions about the importance and urgency of the situation in South Sudan were stronger. “Today, I worry about my family, my friends and my colleagues in Sudan. I fear that some people are taking this film out of context and associating it with conflicts between the army and the Rapid Support Forces. The war in the South was due to racism, marginalization and identity bigotry. What is happening today is only a struggle for power in order to preserve the interests of individuals. »
