Mathilde Arcel on Her Venice-Winning Turn in 'Woman Unknown' and What Comes Next: 'Everything Is Open'

Mathilde Arcel is the first to admit she never saw any of this coming. In early September, the 30-year-old Dane won the Volpi Cup for best actress at the Venice Film Festival for 'Woman Unknown,' her first leading role in a feature film. Now, barely two months later, she has closed out the Thessaloniki Film Festival as one of six nominees for best actress at the European Film Awards, with nominations announced Saturday afternoon in the Greek city.

'Woman Unknown,' directed by May el-Toukhy, also claimed the Golden Lion in Venice. The post-World War II drama casts Arcel as a young housemaid whose intimate relationship with a German soldier during the war threatens her future, a performance Variety's Beatrice Loayza praised as 'magnetic.' The Thessaloniki festival, which ran Nov. 5 to 15, wrapped Sunday with a screening of el-Toukhy's Venice winner.

The European Film Awards ceremony, set for Athens in January, carries personal meaning for Arcel, whose grandmother comes from the Greek island of Lesvos. She describes the occasion as 'a weird kind of homecoming.' 'I feel so lucky,' she says.

Over coffee at Thessaloniki's Mediterranean Palace, Arcel still appeared dazed by how quickly her life has changed. Before her Venice triumph, her career had been built mostly on stage and television work, with only supporting parts on the big screen. She has told Danish media that she was collecting unemployment benefits in the run-up to the festival and was on her way to report to a job center in Copenhagen when she learned she needed to fly back to Venice for the awards ceremony. Looking back on what she calls, eyes wide, 'an adventure,' she jokes: 'It's only downhill from here, right?'

The film draws on accounts of the many women across Europe who were publicly shamed in peacetime for their conduct during the Nazi occupation, stories pushed to the margins of the collective memory of World War II. Accepting the Golden Lion, el-Toukhy said the production had been 'incredibly challenging to make financially, logistically, emotionally,' adding that 'what kept me going was the urgent need to illuminate the unknown women of our common history, to make them known.'

That history hit close to home for Arcel. She recalls asking her Danish grandmother about the war and hearing how, on the day of liberation, women in the neighborhood were suddenly pulled out into the street, spat on, called names and had their hair cut off. 'It really stuck with me, that this was..her most vivid memory from the occupation,' Arcel says. Still, she admits she 'didn't know how vast this phenomenon was, all across Europe, how these women were treated,' until she began researching the part.

In some ways, Arcel seemed destined for the role. After graduating from drama school in Copenhagen, she says el-Toukhy was 'the first person I wrote to,' telling the director she loved her films and hoped to work with her, without expecting it would happen. When the casting call came, she doubted she would get the part because the character felt like a departure from anything she had played. Once cast, she treated the role of Marie like an investigation. 'It was kind of like detective work when I started working with her to see what kind of person she is and why she does what she does,' Arcel says. 'It was intriguing.'

Arcel credits el-Toukhy, whose 2019 drama 'Queen of Hearts' starred Trine Dyrholm, with writing female characters 'that are complex in their morality,' something she calls 'quite rare.' She describes their work together as 'a very collaborative process' and the pair as 'a good team,' with both committed to deep period research. 'What kind of dreams did they have at that time? What kind of movies did they watch? What kind of music did they hear?' Arcel says. 'We both want to do everything we can to know as much as possible.'

Next, Arcel heads to the Marrakech Film Festival, where 'Woman Unknown' screens in the Horizons section, while an Oscar campaign in the best international feature category gets underway after Denmark selected the film as its submission for the 99th Academy Awards. Scripts have begun pouring in, she now has U.S. representation, and she has cleared her calendar for the next six months to consider offers. As for what comes after that, she says it is too early to tell. 'It feels like being on the verge of something that might happen and might not even happen,' she says. 'A lot of dreams and hopes. Everything is open.'