Born in Paris in 1982, Mati Diop is the daughter of the Senegalese musician Wasis Diop and the niece of the director Djibril Diop Mambéty. She was an actress, appearing in Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum, and made a short film, Atlantiques, that she developed into her debut feature Atlantics (2019), a ghost story of young men lost at sea from Dakar and the women who stay behind. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, making her the first Black woman in competition. Dahomey (2024), a documentary about the return of looted royal treasures to Benin, won the Golden Bear.