Conversation with Mati Diop and Vassilis Oikonomopoulos

A conversation between Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Director of Exhibitions and Programs at LUMA Arles, filmmaker Mati Diop, and the audience following screenings of her films Atlantiques (2009) and Atlantics (2019).

Mati Diop (born 1982) is a French-Senegalese filmmaker. Her debut feature, Atlantics (2019), received the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, where she later served as a member of the jury in 2021. Atlantics was Senegal’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2020.

Her feature and short films—including In My Room (2020), Liberian Boy (2015), A Thousand Suns (Mille Soleils, 2013), Big in Vietnam (2012), Snow Canon (2011), and Atlantiques (2009)—have been screened and honored at numerous international festivals, including the Venice International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Viennale, IndieLisboa, and FIDMarseille, as well as at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

In 2016, Diop received the Martin E. Segal Award for Emerging Artists, presented by Lincoln Center in New York. She is also an actress and appeared in several films between 2008 and 2016, including Claire Denis’s 35 Shots of Rum (2008).