The Japan Times - Justine Triet: Oscars glory for French feminist

Triet, 45, made waves last year when "Anatomy" won the top prize at the Cannes film festival and she used her acceptance speech to lash out at the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

She accused France, one of the most generous countries in the world to artists, of moving towards a "commercialisation" of the movie industry, while also slamming pension reforms that had sparked weeks of protests.

Macron pointedly failed to congratulate her on her victory at Cannes, and the movie was not France's official selection for the Oscar for best international film.

But Triet became increasingly difficult to ignore, scooping up prizes around the world for the film, and ending up alongside Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan in the running for five Oscars including best picture and best director.

"It will help me through my mid-life crisis, I think," a breathless Triet quipped as she accepted her prize alongside his partner and co-writer Arthur Harari.

"Anatomy of a Fall", the tale of a woman (Oscar nominee Sandra Hueller) accused of killing her husband, struck a chord with its subtle take on gender issues.

"I wanted to overturn gender norms," she said in a recent interview.

"As a spectator, I hadn't seen many films where the woman is so unapologetic about owning her space, not asking permission from her partner to be that way."

Triet's previous features have also centred on portraits of women and relations between the sexes.

Her debut, "Age of Panic", mixed acerbic relationship comedy with documentary-style filming during the French presidential election of 2012.

She followed it with "Victoria" in 2016, a light-hearted romcom starring Virginie Efira that addressed the difficulty of juggling work, love and family life.

She worked with Efira again three years later on "Sibyl" about a writer who becomes a psychologist.

- 'Didn't wait for #MeToo' -

"For a very long time when I watched films, I identified with the male role," Triet said, referring to the lack of options for women in the industry when she was young.

For Triet, who has two children with Harari, her views on gender politics start at home.

"I didn't wait for #MeToo to make sure the person who lives with me works just as hard to raise the children in our house," she told AFP in her Paris apartment last year just before her Cannes success turned her life upside down.

"I organise myself so that I don't sacrifice my ambitions."

Born on July 17, 1978, Triet grew up in Paris and studied arts in the French capital.

"My mother had a fairly complex life, worked and raised three children, two of whom were not her own. My father was very absent," she told AFP.

She ditched her studies after a few years to devote herself to film and made her first documentary in 2007 about student protests that were taking place at the time.

"Justine doesn't work like the others. She makes filming into a collective art form," said her long-time producer Marie-Ange Luciani.

M.Sugiyama--JT