Euzhan Palcy

Euzhan Palcy is a film director, writer and producer from Martinique, French West Indies. She is notable for being the first black woman director produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM), for A Dry White Season, as well as being the only woman filmmaker to have directed Marlon Brando, whom she brought back to the screen after a gap of nine years. Palcy is also the first black artist to win a César Award, the highest French film award. She was also the first black director to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination.

Born in Martinique, Euzhan Palcy grew up studying the films of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Orson Welles. She left for Paris in 1975 to earn a master's degree in French Literature, in theater at the Sorbonne, a D.E.A. in Art and Archeology and a film degree (specializing in cinematography) from renowned Louis Lumière College.

It was in Paris, with the encouragement of her "French Godfather," François Truffaut, that she was able to put together her first feature, Sugar Cane Alley (1983). Shot for less than $1,000,000, it documents through the eyes of a young boy the love and sacrifice of a poor black family living on a Martinique sugar cane plantation in the 1930s. Sugar Cane Alley won over 17 international awards including the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion, as well as the Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) for Best Lead Actress Award (Darling Legitimus). It also won the prestigious César Award (the French equivalent to Academy Award) for Best First Feature Film. After seeing Palcy's work, Robert Redford handpicked her to attend the 1984 Sundance Director's Lab (Sundance Institute), becoming her "American Godfather."

Palcy’s interest in humanitarian work and to support the younger generation has been known for years. One of her productions, Moly, is an autobiographical short about a disabled one-legged Senegalese young filmmaker named Moly Kane. The film was screened in Cannes to rapturous acclaim. Palcy announced on stage that Moly Kane will receive the prosthetic leg of his dreams so that he could be free to film with his camera.