Sciamma is adept at turning complicated ideas about burgeoning teenage sexuality into a quiet film that indulges in lingering shots, studies of bodies, and a wistful synthy score without ever being indulgent…. It’s a refreshing, probing film from a new director who shows herself to be in absolute command of unique material.
TIME OUT ****

Celine Sciamma’s debut is an insight into the awkwardness of adolescence and the agony of first love….Its depiction of 15 year-olds as nascent adults without patronising or demonising them is refreshing- something European cinema consistently does better than Hollywood.
EMPIRE ****

With its coming-of-age stoyline, its subtle humour, and its ability to handle mood and drama equally elegantly, the film recalls other outstanding debuts: Lukas Moodysoon’s Show Me Love and Sophia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. I can’t wait to see what Sciamma will do next.
Sukhdev Sandhu THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Celine Sciamma’s first film, set in the weird and confusing arenas of teenage female sexuality and competitive synchronised swimming, has a similar-sounding score and some of the same dreamy photography as Sofia Coppola’s debut, The Virgin Suicides. Which suggests that Sciamma is a film-maker to watch.
THE INDEPENDENT INFORMATION****

Sciamma has made an impressively elegant film and elicited great performances from her young cast; it is beautifully shot by Crystel Fournier, and the poignant note of implied autobiography lingers in the mind.
Peter Bradshaw THE GUARDIAN****

Told with a maturity that Tinseltown can only envy, this is a refreshingly unsentimental portrait of the confusions and uncertainties of complex individuals on the brink of their adult lives.
Allan Hunter DAILY EXPRESS****

Celine Sciamma’s first feature is the second film this month to talk intelligently about female adolescence. It’s not as original as Juno, but its three 15-year-old girls, struggling with crushes and burgeoning sexuality, are so good that at times you forget this is a film at all.
EVENING STANDARD****

More than anything else, Water Lilies is a story of the awkward pain of unrequited love and it succeeds in placing us in the character’s heads to an extent that’s almost breathtaking.
Saxon Bullock CHANNEL 4 FILM ****

My Summer Of Love with synchronized swimming, this extraordinary French drama about burgeoning sexuality is as funny, quirky and frankly uncomfortable as suffering your first crush…Quite a remarkable film.
EVE ****

Water Lilies quickly blossoms into a touching valentine to that awkward period when every unrequited fancy is like a knife through the heart, and conformity raps the knuckles of self-expression and individuality.
ATTITUDE ****

At first glance, Water Lilies looks like other Euro dramas about bored teens living in quiet French suburbs, but, as a string of awards attest, there’s much more going on below the surface…The film is so artfully constructed that you don’t notice how tightly controlled the script and design are. This is a world without adults, one where boys are shadowy figures rather than fully realised characters. This is a teenaged girl’s world, full of acute, paralysing insecurities and passions… Sumptuously shot, many scenes take place at the public pool where Esther Williams-style water ballet numbers reveal furiously paddling feet below the surface. A perfect metaphor for the teens themselves.
DIVA ****

The naiveties and complexities of adolescent teenage girls are captured in Céline Sciamma’s beautiful first film, Water Lilies. [The film] Water Lilies is an unfettered look at teenage angst and an exercise in body consciousness.
GAYDARNATION****

A delicate and dreamlike portrayal of adolescence, 27-year-old Celine Sciamma’s debut is an evocation of the struggles of teenage girls.
DAZED AND CONFUSED

Set against the hitherto underused dramatic backdrop of synchronised swimming, this beguiling film quickly develops into a powerful coming of age tale.
FILM REVIEW ****

Director Celine Sciamma’s sparse atmospheric debut captures the cruel and bewildering world of female adolescence with uncanny accuracy. It should’ve stuck with original title The Birth Of Octopuses; the thrashing limbs of the 15-year-old synchronised swimmers it centres on (acted by a host of convincing newbies) being the perfect accompaniment to their intense, clumsy, awakenings of sexual desire. In a Paris suburb where adults are absent, skinny, quiet Marie ditches her chubby pal Anne (Louise Blachere) to hang with Floriane (Adele Haenel), whose precocious come-hither looks make her the reluctant object of girls’ jealousy and guys’ advances. Some scenes could’ve been gratuitous were it not for the film’s cold restraint, but the slow pace bottles a sense of that age when time seems to stretch endlessly.
Carmen Gray TOTAL FILM

Celine Sciamma’s assured debut captures the essence of teen angst and blossoming sexuality in a manner that’s altogether more realistic than most UK or US teen dramas. With a synchronised swimming club in a bland Parisian suburb as the backdrop, it tells of three young girls grappling with impending womanhood. Their awkwardness and insecurities are familiar yet the script and character development are cleverly measured.

The themes of casual cruelty and the fragility of friendships are explored as the girls jockey for the affections of both boys and each other. The three leads deliver outstanding performances, with Adele Haenel particularly impressive as the beautiful one that the boys love and the girls loathe.
FRENCH MAGAZINE

The painfully spot-on essence of teen angst meets the spirit of Esther Williams in “Water Lilies”. First film by gifted scripter-helmer Celine Sciamma…A contemporary film about teens without a cell phone in sight is refreshing and gives the picture a timeless quality. Sciamma’s vision on girl-to-girl sexual rituals is as profound as it is rare on screen. Probing and impressively assured the fest-ready gem is brimming with talent to watch.
Lise Neselsson VARIETY

BLOGS
“What is really compelling about [Water Lilies] is the incredibly hard and honest look it takes at teenage sexuality. I… have to recommend that everyone goes to see it.”
Comment: Water Lilies is quite painfully true and joyfully uplifting at once. It is so beautiful… I’m off to tell everyone I know to see this film…
THE F WORD

“‘Water Lilies’ is a terrific film…This is a film that takes you back to a time when stuff mattered. I don’t mean the stuff that you think about now: houses, mortgages, jobs and money, I mean the important stuff. Desire, boys, girls and hormones. Do you remember when the four walls that surrounded your bedroom felt like the universe? Do you remember the first time you felt like you might die if the feelings you felt were not reciprocated? This film does. It takes us slap bang into the world of three very different young women as they explore their first forays into the world of physical love.”
THE VIRGINITY PROJECT

“It had bypassed the part of my brain that likes giant exploding things, and plugged straight into my emotions. It left me silent and thinking for a good hour, I wanted to hug someone (but had gone to the film alone) and my eyes were manfully damp. I think that it is a film that will stay with me for quite some time – much longer than the whizz-bang films that I normally like.

...[I]f you have the chance to go and see it I would recommend it completely – even if nothing explodes or gets shot.”
RANDOM ACTS OF REALITY