''Little Girl'' (french: Petite Fille) is a 2020 French documentary film written and directed by

Sébastien Lifshitz Sébastien Lifshitz (born 21 January 1968) is a French screenwriter and director. He teaches at La Fémis, a school that focuses on the subject of image and sound. He studied at the École du Louvre, and has a bachelor's degree from the Universit ...

. The

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

was by Paul Guilhaume, and the editing was by Pauline Gaillard. It focuses on the story of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

seven-year-old Sasha, who was

assigned male at birth Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of birt ...

but has known she is a girl since the age of four. She sees a psychiatrist with a special interest in gender who diagnosis her with

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until ...

. The documentary follows the difficulty Sasha and her family face in helping her transition in provincial France.

Screenings

''Little Girl'' was screened at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

in the Panorama Queer film section in 2020. It was shown at the

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, second ...

in 2020 and

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

. In the UK, it was shown on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

and

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

under the '' Storyville'' documentary strand in 2021.

Reception

Leslie Felperin of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the documentary 4 out of 5 stars, praising Guilhaume's "limpid" cinematography as " llowing the viewerto study every flicker of expression on the faces of Sasha and the adults around her". Ben Dowell of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' also gave the film 4 out of 5 stars.

Awards

* Winner,

European Film Award for Best Sound Designer European Film Award for Best Sound Designer has been awarded annually by the European Film Academy. The category was first presented in 2013, though before several sound designers were nominated for special awards. Winners and nominees 2000s ...

at the

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the most ...

* The 2020 Grand Prix for Best Film at

Film Fest Gent Film Fest Ghent, spelt Film Fest Gent in Flemish and also known as International Film Fest Gent, is an annual international film festival in Ghent, Belgium. The festival held its first edition in 1974, under the name Internationaal Filmgebeuren ...

* Silver Hugo for Best Documentary film at the 2020

* The Prix du public at the Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) in 2020 * Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, Saint Petersburg 2020 Best Documentary

References

External links

* * {{Sébastien Lifshitz, state=expanded 2020 LGBT-related films Films directed by Sébastien Lifshitz Films about trans women 2020 documentary films Transgender-related documentary films 2020s French films French LGBT-related documentary films