Haitian filmmaker Gessica Généus wins best film in Rome for ‘Marie Madeleine’

Haitian filmmaker Gessica Généus won the Villa Medici Prize for Best Film for Marie Madeleine, adding another international award to a career built around telling stories about Haiti.

Généus received the award Sept. 19 during the sixth Villa Medici Film Festival in Rome, which ran from Sept. 16 to 20. 

Marie Madeleine was one of 12 films selected for the festival’s international competition, which brought together fiction, documentary and experimental films from around the world.

Set in Jacmel, the main city of Haiti’s Southeast Department, the 104-minute film—which Généus directs and stars in—vibrantly reimagines the biblical tale of Mary Magdalene, following a free-spirited Haitian sex worker whose serendipitous involvement with a repressed preacher’s son opens up new possibilities for both. 

The story follows the woman portraying Marie Madeleine as she earns a living through sex work and meets Joseph, a young evangelist. Their relationship brings together two very different worlds as Joseph’s faith begins to change and Marie Madeleine pursues her own freedom.

The Villa Medici jury awarded Marie Madeleine the festival’s top prize. The award comes with €5,000, or about $5,700, and the opportunity for the filmmaker to take part in a residency at Villa Medici.

The jury also recognized the film for its exploration of faith, freedom and choices people make. The festival described the film as a story in which faith can become both a “refuge and a prison.”

“The Villa Medici Prize for Best Film is awarded to Marie Madeleine by Gessica Génésus for her exploration of what happens when belief becomes both a refuge and a prison,” the jury said in announcing its verdict. 

Jurors also highlighted Généus’ courage in being willing to shake “the very foundations of everything we have been taught, her vision and the extraordinary humanity of her film.”

The distinction adds another major international honor to Généus’ growing film career. Her previous films, including “Freda” and “Douvan Jou Ka Leve,” have also received awards and recognition at international festivals.

Freda, Genéus’s first feature film, brought even more international attention. The film premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. It also received a special mention for the François Chalais Award. Still, the film went on to receive several additional festival honors worldwide.

Généus began her career as an actor and later moved into directing and producing. She has also appeared in other Haitian productions such as “Kidnapping Inc.,” a Haitian film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024 before being shown in Haiti.

Her work has remained closely tied to Haiti, both in subject and production. 

Freda was filmed in Port-au-Prince and examines the choices Haitians face as they consider whether to stay or leave. Marie Madeleine continues that focus, this time through a story set in Jacmel, a seaside town renowned for its tourism.

At the Film Festival of Villa Medici 2026 in Rome, Marie Madeleine was shown in Haitian Creole with English subtitles.

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