Paris-Deauville, which chronicles a long road trip for a woman escorted by a stranger under threat of a knife – an encounter between a desperate man, ready to crack, and a seemingly oblivious middle-class woman.

Virginie Boda’s project, Paris-Deauville, required a huge effort to gather background material. “I strongly believe in the fact-finding stage of a script to make sure that I don’t betray the characters I am going to portray, or the audience. In order to find the right tone, I am going to try to become a volunteer in an organization for the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners,” she stated when she was awarded the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation grant. It’s clear that Boda is conscientious about her work, to say the least. After earning a master’s degree in law – she wanted to be a police superintendent – she earned a postgraduate diploma (DEA) in information sciences at CELSA. She then worked as a production assistant at AB Productions and as a programme promotion assistant at Canal J. She also did freelance work for children’s magazines. Then, at Carrère, she monitored 10 sitcom writers to ensure coherence in the writing of the series. “I like television writing because it requires a meticulous approach. The objective is to reach as many people as possible, and one must therefore be sensitive to the audience, whose members have to be so captivated that they forget to drink their Cokes – just like at the movies!”

Achievements since winning the grant

- 1997 to 2001: Virginie Boda worked as a programming advisor in the TV comedy & drama department at France 2, and then in the young people’s programming department at France 3.
- In 2000, she worked on a feature-length film project (L’Arbre), developed with Gérard Brach and Charles Valade (2000 scriptwriter grant winner) at the request of René Cleitman.
- In 2001, Paris-Deauville, written by Boda and directed by Isabelle Broué, was broadcast on Arte and on the European channel TV5. The film also received the Lauriers du Sénat award in the First Film category. It was broadcast a second time by Arte at the start of the 2002 season.
- In 2001, Virginie Boda was a finalist in the FIPA competition for Best TV Scriptwriter for the 52-minute-episode series Trois, Deux, Une.
- In 2002, two of her episodes for the series Joséphine Ange Gardien were filmed for DEMD and TF1 (and achieved the best audience numbers since the beginning of the series).
- In 2003, Virginie Boda co-wrote a feature film, Enfin Libres!, with Nathalie Mars.
- Wrote Cheval Soleil, a short animated film directed by J.J. Prunès (Les Films de l’Arlequin and France 3), which received the Best TV Film prize at the Auch Festival in 2005.