Marion Standefer is a filmmaker and photographer whose work explores interdependence, cross-cultural relationships, migration, and the intersections of personal and collective storytelling.
She is the president of Les Meilleurs du Monde, INC, a non-profit organization amplifying migrant voices through film, photography, and educational initiatives, and the founder of LMDM Productions, a French production company producing socially engaged cinema and audiovisual content.
Marion earned her B.A. in Sociology, with minors in French & Francophone Studies and Urban Education from University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude), and completed her Master’s in Education at CY Cergy Paris Université through a Fulbright Scholarship. Her background in ethnographic research informs her creative work: her narrative films, documentaries, and photographs are preceded by months or years of interviews and participant observation.
Her debut feature film, Le Meilleur du Monde, has been selected by 10 international film festivals and received several awards, including the Dikalo Peace Award (Festival International de Film Panafricain de Cannes), Best First-Time Director Award (Berlin Indie Film Fest), and the First Place Special Jury Prize (A Slavic Tale Film and T.V. Festival). In addition to traveling with her feature on the festival circuit, she is directing a documentary called “What they left behind”, working as a Director of Photography /1st AD on different documentary projects, producing a short film and writing her next feature film. She is also shooting fashion and humanitarian photography and exhibiting her work in Paris. Alongside her creative work, she leads filmmaking workshops for youth and emerging artists.
Her work—spanning narrative film, documentary, and photography—seeks to illuminate the humanity that connects us across borders.
Marion Standefer 