Once Upon My Mother
Once Upon My Mother is a French-Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Ken Scott and released in 2025. The film was adapted from the 2021 autobiographical novel Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan by French lawyer and broadcaster, which centres on his experiences growing up with a clubfoot and a Sephardic Jewish mother who is determined not to let her son's disability stop him from leading a full and successful life. The film received two nominations at the 51st César Awards, including Best Actress for Leïla Bekhti.
Cast
The film stars Jonathan Cohen as Perez in adulthood, and Leïla Bekhti as his mother.Child actors Gabriel Hyverneau, Naim Naji and Noé Schecroun play Perez at various ages in childhood, with the cast also including Joséphine Japy, Lionel Dray, Jeanne Balibar, Milo Machado-Graner, Anne Le Ny, Ariane Massenet and Gladys Cohen in supporting roles.
Sylvie Vartan, whose music is used extensively in the film as a recurring motif of Perez's childhood, also makes a brief appearance in the film as herself, and recorded a new version of her song "Nicolas". Perez himself also makes a small appearance in the film as a school director.
Production
Scott, a Canadian director, first became interested in adapting Perez's novel after reading it while in isolation after contracting COVID-19.The film's production was announced in September 2023, as the first French-language film in which Amazon Prime Video was a production partner.
Distribution
The film premiered on 30 January 2025, as part of the 24th Rencontres Cinématographiques de Bretagne, organized by the association La Règle du Jeu, in Quimper.The film premiered in Avignon on 13 February 2025.
It was also screened as the opening film of the Love International Film Festival in Mons, Belgium, on 7 March, and at the Luxembourg City Film Festival on 13 March, before opening commercially in France on 19 March.
It reached #1 in the French box office rankings in the week of 30 March 2025, and surpassed 1.4 million tickets sold by 1 May.
It opened commercially in Quebec on 4 April, and received screenings at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, the Winnipeg Jewish Film Festival, the 2025 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival and the Victoria Jewish Film Festival.
The film will be distributed by Menemsha Films in the United States. It was the Opening Film selections at the 2026 New York Jewish Film Festival, 2026 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and 2026 Miami Jewish Film Festival, where it received the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film.
Critical response
Maxime Demers of Le Journal de Montréal rated the film 4 out of 5, praising the performances of Cohen and Bekhti and calling it a heartwarming film that conveyed a message of hope in difficult times.Manon Dumais of La Presse rated the film 7 out of 10, praising Scott's handling of the balance between comedic and dramatic tones.
For Cineuropa, Aurore Engelen was more mixed, writing that "unfortunately, the film chooses to age its actors in a way that risks distracting from the story, especially when it comes to Leïla Bekhti and Jonathan Cohen who are playing a mother and son in the film, despite everyone knowing they're from the same generation. Casting "real" celebrities opposite "real" actors is also problematic, much like the film's tendency to explore tragic events from Roland's viewpoint, confining us solely to his perspective to the detriment of the film's other characters, which might prove equally disconcerting for audiences."