Leyla Bouzid

Leyla Bouzid was born in Tunis in 1984 and studied in France: Modern Literature at the Sorbonne, then filmmaking at La Fémis (2006-2011). She directed two short films, Soubresauts and Zakaria. Both won awards at numerous festivals. 

In 2014, she directed her first feature film, As I Open My Eyes. It is a portrait of Farah, an 18-year-old rock singer under Ben Ali. The film won an award at the Venice Film Festival and received more than forty international awards. Her second feature film, A Tale of Love and Desire, closed La Semaine de la Critique at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. It follows the emotional education of a shy young man, Ahmed, a Frenchman of Algerian origin. It earned Sami Outalbali a César nomination. Her third feature film, In a Whisper, is in post-production. It continues to weave together the intimate and the political. 

Leyla also works as a co-screenwriter (Walid Mattar, Margot Gallimard) and script consultant (Marie-Sophie Chambon, Le Groupe Ouest).