Euzhan Palcy is a writer, director and producer born in Martinique in the French West Indies. Her first feature film, “Sugar Cane Alley,” won the Silver Lion at the 1983 Venice Film Festival, a first for a Black director.  It went on to win a César Award for Best First Work, the first César won by a woman director and by a Black filmmaker.  She continued her journey with “A Dry White Season” (1989), a drama made at the height of apartheid, becoming the first Black woman to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio and guiding Marlon Brando to his last Oscar nomination. Her films also include the musical fairytale “Siméon.”  Palcy’s work has been an inspiration to filmmakers, contemporary artists and novelists. Palcy has recently been announced to receive an honorary Oscar by the Academy of Motion Pictures for her extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema.