The Laura Stern Affair, directed by Akim Isker and carried by Valérie Bonneton, received the prize for best work of fiction on Friday evening at the second edition of the MeTooMedia awards, at the Théâtre de la Concorde, in Paris. Available on france.tv, this mini-series in four 52-minute episodes deals with a sensitive subject: violence against women and the powerlessness of institutions to protect them.
Laura Stern, played by Valérie Bonneton, is a pharmacist, mother and founder of the association “Femmes Debout”, which supports women victims of domestic violence. Her life is turned upside down when she helplessly witnesses the murder of Audrey, one of the women she is trying to protect. Totally traumatized, Laura then loses confidence in the police and the justice system, and decides to resort to violence herself. A choice that will lead her to court with this question: can we take justice into our own hands when the justice system has failed to protect the victims?
A fiction nourished by the testimonies of female victims
The series was created and written by Marie Kremer and Frédéric Krivine. It is not inspired by a specific news item, but by several stories and collective traumas. To build their characters and their situations, the two screenwriters notably met women victims of domestic violence within victim support associations.
In an interview published by the National Cinema Center in January 2026, Marie Kremer recounted having immersed herself at length in the work of the Marseille association SOS Femmes 13, where she listened to the testimonies and took notes. Frédéric Krivine, for his part, met women in another association. “What struck us was their vitality and their desire to live,” explains the screenwriter. “Laura Stern doesn’t exist, but she is imbued with the energy of all these women.”
The authors' bias was to shift the view usually given to domestic violence. Rather than only telling the story of a victim, they chose to place the viewer in Laura's position: "We wanted the public to identify directly, to ask themselves the question of what we can do when the institution has difficulty reacting to violence and death threats", explains Frédéric Krivine.
Fiction also addresses a sometimes less visible dimension of domestic violence: psychological influence. “It is, however, as brutal as the beatings,” underlines Marie Kremer, who regrets that the judicial system does not take this reality sufficiently into account.
Awarded even before its broadcast on France 2, The Laura Stern Affair had already won the prize for best dramatic series at the La Rochelle Fiction Festival in September 2025.
Lio and Florence Porcel also rewarded
In total, ten MeTooMedia awards were presented Friday evening to journalists, authors, musicians, media and directors. They distinguish journalistic, documentary, literary or artistic works which contribute to a better understanding of sexist and sexual violence.
The prize for best general press article was awarded to Marine Turchi, journalist at Mediapart, for her investigation Patrick Bruel accused of sexual violence by eight women, published in March 2026. In the sports press category, Marie Ottavi, journalist at Libération, was rewarded for her article How I tried to explain to my nine-year-old son that Achraf Hakimi, PSG star, was accused of rape.
The prize for best literary work was awarded to Florence Porcel, the first woman to have filed a complaint against the former TF1 presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, for Parler ou se silence. What it costs to attack powerful men at Hugo Doc editions. Finally, a jury prize was awarded to singer Lio, in recognition of her years of activism, her commitment and her courage in speaking out.
“This list recalls the importance of works which make visible long-silenced realities, give the public the keys to understanding the mechanisms of violence and shift the focus on the victims. Changing stories also means changing practices and protections,” explains Emmanuelle Dancourt, president of MeTooMedia. Since its creation in November 2021, the association intends to fight against gender-based and sexual violence in the media and culture sectors, and to develop practices in these sectors.
