Award season is abuzz with red carpets, marketing campaigns, and new movie releases. 2024 was a stellar year for film—we were all dazzled by remarkable scores, animation, practical effects, and killer performances by our favorite actors and actresses. Nominations for the 97th annual Academy Awards were published and announced this past month. People have had a lot to say about the nominees, especially the films up for “Best Picture” and the actresses up for “Best Actress.” However, there is something to note about the nominees for “Best Director” this year; only one is female, and that woman is Coralie Fargeat, director and writer of the body horror flick The Substance.
Fargeat, who was born in France in 1976, attended the La Femis Cinema School in Paris before producing her critically acclaimed debut short, Le Telegramme, in 2003. With both of her shorts winning numerous festival awards and her second picture, Reality+ (2014), being nominated for a Jury Award at the Tribeca Picture Festival, her filmmaking has continuously gotten positive reviews. Coralie Fargeat’s directorial debut, Revenge, changed audiences’ lives forever. Revenge was released in 2017 and is currently available to stream on Shudder. With the tagline, “Why do women always have to put up a fight?” Revenge explores a woman named Jen, who intends to go on a romantic getaway with her wealthy, married boyfriend. When the getaway is interrupted by her boyfriend’s friends arriving for an impromptu hunting session, tension grows in unexpected and dastardly ways.
This film is so good! Jen sports big, pink star earrings throughout the runtime, giving her an iconic look and establishing her as a strong, memorable final girl in the genre. I saw this movie for the first time this past September, in preparation for The Substance, and it blew my mind! It had so many icky and gory moments; the sound design and editing made this a masterpiece and solidified Fargeat as a strong director in the horror genre.
Following her directorial debut, Fargeat wrote and released 2024’s smash hit The Substance. In Esquire’s “Mavericks of 2024” article, author Brian O’Keefe sat down with Fargeat and interviewed her about her motivations for filmmaking and the process of making her second feature film, The Substance. The Substance won “Best Screenplay” at Cannes in May, and stirred up plenty of Oscar buzz for Demi Moore’s all-in performance. O’Keefe writes, “The visually arresting body-horror thriller—which Fargeat wrote, directed, coproduced, and coedited and which costars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid—is a biting commentary on sexism and ageism, especially in the entertainment industry. It’s a potent mix of dark humor and gross-out shock, with elements of Kubrick and Cronenberg.”
The Substance‘s commentary on sexism and ageism has been massively commented on by audiences all over the world, with some calling it “gruesomely perfect” in its depictions of womanhood, bodily transformation, and inner turmoil. Logan Thompson, staff writer for The Ithacan, writes, “The Substance is an over-the-top examination of our own image, warts and all. The daunting 140-minute run time flies by. Not only does this film mock ‘the male gaze’ so prevalent in the entertainment industry, it questions our collective perception of humanity and female identity. The ‘uglier’ the film gets, the more vivaciously entertaining it is.”
Coralie Fargeat’s careful attention to the male gaze and how it makes women of all ages feel is a strength that makes her and female-led stories the future of filmmaking.
As the body horror increases in the film, the social commentary is unveiled, and the process of aging is left with a renewed vision. We are beautiful as we are! Coralie stated herself in the Behind-the-Scenes featurette of The Substance:
“The message of the film to me is that women should be free to do whatever they want with their bodies. You know, they should be able to be sexy, not sexy, to change it or not change it, to be natural or not natural. We should just stop commenting on it; we should just stop caring about it. But we are unfortunately very far from that.”
Coralie Fargeat: Behind the Scenes of “The Substance”
The Substance quickly became a favorite of mine, and Coralie Fargeat’s genius is forever solidified in my mind. Her writing is so strong, her skills as a filmmaker are unmatched, and the body horror is to die for. Fargeat’s work allowed actresses to depict feelings that women have felt for generations in extreme ways using practical effects and prosthetics. I am so glad the women who worked on this film are being recognized for their effort, skill, and talent. The Substance has been nominated for five Academy Awards!
Coralie Fargeat is a strong director, writer, and thinker in the new age of horror. I can’t wait to see what she does next!
The Substance is streaming exclusively on Mubi and is available to rent from Amazon Prime and Apple TV.