The Velvet Queen
For this screening, the lighting and sound are adjusted to create a calm, safe, and inclusive environment. Viewers are free to move, express themselves, and interact as they wish. Whether you're attending alone, with friends, or with family, our relaxed screenings offer a friendly and accessible cinematic experience for everyone, especially neuroatypical people and those with newborn babies.
Winner of the César Award for Best Documentary in 2022
Original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
High up on the Tibetan plateau, among unexplored and inaccessible valleys, lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the world's most renowned wildlife photographers, takes the adventurer and novelist Sylvain Tesson with him on his latest mission. For several weeks, they'll explore these valleys searching for unique animals and try to spot the snow leopard, one of the rarest and most difficult big cats to approach.
Marie Amiguet
Marie Amiguet is a French documentary filmmaker specializing in wildlife reporting. She discovered photography and large mammals at the age of nine when her parents decided to go to Cambodia. After obtaining a science degree, she began studying biology but quickly grew tired of theory. Eager for adventure, she set off to travel, exploring West Africa and the Caribbean and even crossing the Pacific Ocean by boat—experiences that deepened her connection to the animal world. At 25, she returned to France and enrolled at the Institut francophone de formation au cinéma animalier de Ménigoute (IFFCAM), where she earned a master’s degree. After her first films, she met director Jean-Michel Bertrand, who was working on a film project about wolves in the Hautes-Alpes. She joined him for four years, working as a cinematographer and as a camera operator for two feature films, while also directing two documentaries of her own. In 2017, wildlife photographer Vincent Munier invited her to join him in the Tibetan highlands to film snow leopards. She embarked on the journey with him and travel writer Sylvain Tesson. The Velvet Queen premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the Cinema for the Climate section and won the César Award for Best Documentary in 2022.
Vincent Munier
Vincent Munier is a French wildlife photographer. He began to photograph animals at the age of twelve, aided by his father. Since 2002, he has traveled the world, capturing the beauty of wildlife and highlighting endangered species through his work. In 2008, he photographed the Arctic wolf for the first time, sparking a fascination that led him to return to Canada repeatedly in search of this elusive animal. In 2013, he spent a month alone on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut), where he experienced one of the most profound moments of his career: a rare encounter with a pack of nine Arctic wolves, from which he brought back extraordinary images. He is the subject of Sylvain Tesson’s travelogue La panthère des neiges and co-directed The Velvet Queen with Marie Amiguet. His photographs have appeared in international media (Terre Sauvage, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife Magazine), and in books. He has authored over a dozen photography books with various publishers. His work is regularly exhibited at international photography festivals and showcased in galleries worldwide. Throughout his career, he has won multiple awards at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
