War Witch, produced by FSU Communications alumna, Marie-Claude Poulin, was nominated for a 2013 Academy Award in the best Foreign Language Film category.

Poulin received her B.A. in Advertising in 1985 from the FSU School of Communication.  She has worked in the film industry for over 20 years.  Her past positions include serving as the VP of Sales for Malofilm, Executive VP of TVA Films, and VPof Equinoxe Films.

In 2009, Poulin co-founded her own independent film production company, ITEM 7, based in Montreal, Quebec, of which she is co-president.  This company produced the Oscar-nominated, War Witch, and other independent films.  Jordan Twiss, media journalist for PlayBack, a production, broadcasting and interactive media business news source in Canada, selected ITEM 7 as the best film producer of the year.

As part of FSU’s Seven Days of Opening Nights on February 18, Geoffrey Gilmore, well-known independent film curator, selected to show the Academy Award-nominated, War Witch, as his annual movie of choice to a sold-out audience.  Poulin and the film’s writer and director, Kim Nguyen, visited FSU for the show.  They presented the film at a sneak screening and had an extended conversation with a group of FSU film school students.

Although War Witch did not end up winning the 2013 Academy Award, the company plans to continue producing feature films.  “As long as the creative team behind it is strong and we feel there’s a great script, we will work within a broad range of genres, whether it’s a comedy or an arthouse film,” says Poulin.

War Witch is centered in Sub-Saharan Africa where Komona, a 14-year-old girl, tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. As her sole means of escape, Komona falls for fellow child soldier, a 15-year old magician, and young love is pitted against violence and cruelty of child warfare. War Witch’s website describes the movie as “a life lesson, a story of human resilience.”

The film has received praise in North America. In addition to the Academy Award nomination, War Witch was featured at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.  War Witch has won Best Actress and Best Picture at the Tribeca Film Festival and was selected by Telefilm Canada as the Canadian Best Foreign Language Film Contender.