StudioCanal and Bien ou Bien Productions have unveiled the first official image of FKA Twigs as Josephine Baker in Maïmouna Doucouré’s upcoming biopic, giving buyers at the American Film Market an early glimpse of the transformation ahead of the film’s release.
Released Wednesday, the still shows Twigs striking one of Baker’s classic playful poses atop a dining table in a pink, beaded and fringed dress, her hair styled in the singer’s signature close-cropped waves. Twigs flashes a broad smile as she twists toward the camera, capturing the blend of sensual glamour and mischievous physical wit Baker was known for on stage.
Written by Doucouré, known for Cuties and Hawa, alongside Olivier Lorelle, Josephine Baker follows its subject’s rise to international stardom in 1920s Paris and her later work with the French Resistance and the American civil rights movement. Born in St. Louis in 1906, Baker moved to Paris in 1925 and became one of the defining entertainers of the Jazz Age. Her activism later included appearing alongside Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington, and in 2021 she became the first Black woman inducted into France’s Panthéon.
“I cannot wait to embody Josephine Baker, bringing her fight, her love, her losses, her talent and her heroism to the big screen,” Twigs said when her casting was announced in May. “She lives on in our hearts as a visionary, ground-breaking woman whose story is as powerful as it is relevant today.”
The project carries the support of Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, along with the Rainbow Tribe, the multiracial family of 12 children Baker raised at her château in southwest France.
Twigs won her first Grammy in February for Best Dance/Electronic Album for Eusexua. Her prior screen credits include Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy, Rupert Sanders’ The Crow, and David Lowery’s Mother Mary, opposite Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.
StudioCanal and Bien ou Bien Productions are producing, with CPB Films, Leyland Films, and Dingie serving as associated producers. StudioCanal is handling worldwide sales at AFM and will release the film theatrically across France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia, and New Zealand.
With a first image this evocative released well ahead of the film’s completion, Josephine Baker is already positioning Twigs’ transformation as the centerpiece of its international sales pitch, betting that a single striking photograph can carry as much weight with buyers as a full trailer.