“Cuties” has been named as the fourth annual winner of the Alice Guy Prize. Cineuropa confirmed that Maïmouna Doucouré’s feature debut landed the honor for the best female-directed French film of 2020.

Set in Paris, “Cuties” is a coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant (Fathia Youssouf) who finds herself drawn to her rebellious next door neighbor (Médina El Aidi-Azouni) and her dance clique.

The Alice Guy Prize was established in 2018 to highlight the work of women directors and “has multiple aims: to compensate somewhat for the recurring absence of women among the lists of major award winners every year, to promote a woman director and encourage her to get her new projects off the ground, to provide a second chance to get the winning film circulated, and to add value to the work of female filmmakers,” the source details. The prize is named in honor of Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker. Pamela B. Green’s “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché,” a doc about Guy and her contributions to cinema, was released in 2019.

Filmmakers Claudine Nougaret and Mounia Meddour were among the prize’s jurors. The latter is a previous Alice Guy Prize winner. She was honored for “Papicha.” Catherine Corsini was recognized for “An Impossible Love,” and Lidia Terki took home the prize for “Paris la blanche.”