Euzhan Palcy is the first Black woman director to\u00a0receive this award. Also honored this year: composer Diane Warren, director Peter Weir and\u00a0actor Michael J. Fox,\u00a0who received\u00a0the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nPalcy led a groundbreaking career of firsts, pioneering a new era of cinema in which the voices and anger of women and Black communities are heard. She began this fight at a very early age: encouraged by Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, and made her first feature film in 1983, at 24 years old. This film was not, however, a trial test: it was the renowned Sugar Cane Alley<\/em>, a film about farm workers in 1930s Martinique that won both a Silver Lion in Venice and a C\u00e9sar in France. First feature film, first masterpiece, which made Palcy the first Black woman director and first woman director to win these prestigious awards.<\/p>\n