Sciamma, a sunny personality who seems to wear her new role as an acclaimed director lightly, admits that, while she is surprised about the film’s international success, she nevertheless consciously tried to make a film that appealed to an international audience. "Even during the writing phase, I kept in mind that I did not want to make this specifically for a French audience, even though the film is set in France and in French," says the director.

Céline Sciamma.

If the director had to sum up in one phrase what the film is really about, she says without hesitation: "le métier des filles," or what it feels like for the girls being girls and learning to be girls. The film was partially inspired by Sciamma’s own experiences growing up: "I watched a synchronised swimming contest when I was about 15," the director explains, "and was immediately drawn to the feminine aspects of it all. That experience actually troubled me and really stayed with me for a long time. So when I had to think about a subject for my first film, my thoughts went back to that experience. I think it is something that represents adolescence 100%".

The reason Naissance des pieuvres focuses on three girls – petite Marie (Pauline Acquart), her self-consciously zaftig best friend Anne (Louise Blachere) and the stunning blonde Floriane (Adèle Haenel) – was partly to allow Sciamma to transform her own experiences into a work of fiction. Says Sciamma: "I think that in the film the characters are also more open than I was at that age; they talk about their femininity and their uncertainties a lot more than I did".

Still, there was one levelling factor when filming started. Explains the director: "Though the screenplay moved away from what I knew, when we started filming, I was again on the same plane as the girls. It is film about first times and there I was, a first-time director with three girls who had little to no experience in making movies".