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Fathia Youssouf is a child actor who rose to fame with the Netflix controversial film named Cuties. It is originally a French film named Mignonnes. French director Maïmouna Doucouré directed the film.
Facts to know about Fathia Youssouf
Here is all you need to know about Fathia Youssouf and her brilliance in acting:
Bio
The leading actress or Cuties was born in 2006 in Paris, France and her parents raised her there. However, as per a few online sources, her parents lived in South Africa, so she has mixed ethnicity. She and her family follow the Christianity religion.
She never mentioned the details about her family to the media. However, we can learn from a few sources that her father is a businessman and her mother is a homemaker. She completed her elementary school with her siblings and is currently pursuing higher studies and an acting career.
Fathia Youssouf age
Though she hasn’t revealed her exact birth date till now, We can estimate that her age is around 14 years during the movie’s release. She loves wearing stylish clothes and small shiny earrings. She is approximately 1.42 meters in height, and her overall body weight is around 40 kilograms. Her hair is medium length, and it is curly and black. She has dark black eyes.
The director of Cuties was very adamant about taking young girls to cast in his movie to make it look natural, so she had given Fathia Youssouf a chance to start! Fathia Youssouf also attended various acting classes and landed a lead role in her first movie. In addition, she is an outstanding dancer.
Acting career
Fathia Youssouf had started her career with the film “Mignonnes,” also known as “Cuties.” As a milestone in her on-screen career, this film made her a superstar overnight, and she has also gained a considerable number of fans. There are various facts we started knowing about her.
The casting session of the film took six hours, and there were around 650 candidates, including her, giving audition for the film. She was one of the last to audition, and the director had met with her during the last hour of the final day. She immediately decided that Fathia Youssouf was the most perfect for the role. Thus, she got the part from over 649 kids. In “Cuties,” she is portraying the role of an 11-year-old kid from Senegal.
Social media life
As Fathia Youssouf mainly focuses on her career, she is not active on social media platforms. However, she has an “Instagram” account with around 19.2k followers. Rather than that, she is not engaged in any other social media sites. However, she does not reveal that either this is her only account or the one she has been using publicly to share with her followers without sharing much about her personal life. She likes to keep her life very private and doesn’t like other people to know about the personal details of her life.
Fathia Youssouf net worth
After earning a lot of fame and success from her first movie, we can estimate that her net worth is around $100,000 and $500,000. Though she had great fortune by her name, she still prefers to lead a modest lifestyle. Her primary source of income is acting.
About the movie Mignonnes
Fathia Youssouf plays the role of an 11-year-old girl of Muslim religion named Amy in the movie “Mignonnes,” also known as “Cuties.” Amy is an immigrant girl from Senegal. She lives with her mother, Mariam, and her siblings in one of the poorest apartments. She gets attracted to her disobedient neighbor Angelica, who loves to dance, unlike Mariam’s traditions and beliefs.
The “BAC films” production house released it in France on August 19, 2020, and internationally on Netflix on September 9, 2020. This film depicts a little girl struggle who wants to value her family’s traditional beliefs and wants to move to a new environment where everyone speaks of freedom.
Criticism and controversy related to the movie
Although “Cuties” is her first movie, this film is not free from all kinds of controversies and criticism. For example, the movie poster depicts the young girls dancing in mini-shorts, which only starts the beginning of the debate. Many viewers slammed the movie for ‘sexualizing young girls’ and demanded cutting down the film from Netflix.
After releasing the trailer and artwork about the movie, there has been an enormous outrage. The viewers also signed various petitions to cut down the film. We discovered that around 35,000 people had given signatures in the petition so far. Many people also had spoken harshly up about the show.
Due to all the outrage, Netflix has apologized for their advertisements about the movie. They also had taken down all the previous photos. In the ads, there are only photos of a young actress showing her face.
Praise and awards
Due to her incredible acting skills in “Mignonnes,” Fathia Youssouf won the “Most promising Actress in César Award.”
“Mignonnes” also had won the “César Award for Best First Feature Film” in 2021 and the “Gotham Independent Film Audience Award” as well as “Gotham Independent Film Award for Best International Feature” in 2021.
The writer and director of the film Maïmouna Doucouré have also won the directing award in the category for “dramatic world cinema” in the “Sundane Film Festival” in 2020.
The selection committee for the “French Academy Award” is shortlisted the movie for one of their submissions in the “International Feature Film category” in 2021.
Final thoughts
Fathia Youssouf is an inspiration for all young actress who wants to make it big in their life. Despite all the criticisms she faced after her debut movie, she continued to move forward and recognized her courageous role in the film.
She has no prior experience as an actor and has given her best in the debut movie. Now, she is one of the top 20 performers globally. She is challenging the likes of various big names worldwide and continues to work in the movies.
