Nelly Béhanzin
About Director
Originally from southern Benin, Nelly Béhanzin is a young filmmaker born on December 21, 1996 in Cotonou. Driven by a passion for images and storytelling, she first trained as a journalist, then obtained a Master I in film and TV directing at ISMA (Institut Supérieur des Métiers de l'Audiovisuel). In 2023, she won the Best Francophone Film Award at the Mobile Film Festival with Le Rêve d'une presqu'île, a short, poetic one-minute film. But it was with her documentary Corps de femme that Nelly made a lasting impression. This film won her the Idriss Diabaté Prize for Best Documentary at Clap Ivoire (Côte d'Ivoire), as well as two other awards: at the Festival Émergence in Togo, and at the Festival du Film de Femme in Cotonou. In March 2024, she walked the carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, embodying this new generation of Beninese filmmakers who are shining internationally. Her creativity and rigor opened the doors to many prestigious residencies: Ouaga Film Lab 2024, FIDADOC 2025, Koudougou Docs (2020), and Ciné Guimbi (2022). In 2021, she was spotted by Durban Talents, and her short film project La Lanterne won Best Pitch at the Salon du Cinéma Féminin in Côte d'Ivoire. The following year, she proudly represented Benin at the UNESCO regional workshop in Guinea, dedicated to African creative and cinematographic industries. Committed and still learning, she joined the Le Futur est à Nous team as a scriptwriter, and also signed an intense short fiction, Séquelles, selected and awarded at Ciné 229 in 2023. Today, Nelly Béhanzin works as an assistant director on numerous local productions, including the comedy mini-series Six en One broadcast on the A+ channel, as well as various programs for national television. Through her images and stories, Nelly questions heritage, intimacy and the place of women in our societies. Her singular, vibrant voice continues to inspire a whole generation.
October 2025
