Alex Christophe Dupont, best known as Leos Carax, is a French film director, critic and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl (1984), and his notable works include Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), Holy Motors (2012) and Annette (2021). For the last, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. His professional name is an anagram of his real name, 'Alex', and 'Oscar'.
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf is a 1991 French film directed by Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant. The film follows a love story between two young vagrants: Alex, a would-be circus performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives, and Michèle, a painter with a disease that is slowly turning her blind. The streets, skies and waterways of Paris are used as a backdrop for the story in a series of set-pieces set during the French Bicentennial celebrations in 1989.
Denis Lavant is a French actor. He is known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax. Lavant has played the lead role in all but two of Carax's films. Lavant is also known for his roles in Claire Denis' Beau Travail, and Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely.
Critics' Week, until 2008 called International Critics' Week, is a parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival organized by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It was created in 1962, after the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics's successful campaign for Shirley Clarke's The Connection to be screened at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. It is the oldest non-official Cannes sidebar.
Holy Motors is a 2012 surrealist fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax and starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays Mr. Oscar, a man who appears to have a job as an actor, as he is seen dressing up in different costumes and performing various roles in several locations around Paris over the course of a day, though no cameras or audiences are ever seen around him. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Mona Achache is a French-Moroccan film director, screenwriter, and actress. She wrote and directed the feature films The Hedgehog (2009), Les Gazelles (2014), Valiant Hearts (2021), and Little Girl Blue (2023). She also directed the Netflix documentary The Women and the Murderer (2021). In 2024, she was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary Film for Little Girl Blue.
Annette is a 2021 musical romantic drama film directed by Leos Carax in his English-language directorial debut. The film's story and music were written by Ron Mael, Russell Mael, and Carax, with lyrics co-written by Carax. The film, which has been described as a rock opera, follows a stand-up comedian and his opera singer wife, and how their lives are changed when they have their first child. Simon Helberg and Devyn McDowell also appear.
Yohan Manca is a French film director, writer, actor and producer. He is best known for his work on the film, My Brothers and I.
Rodeo is a 2022 French drama film written and directed by Lola Quivoron. The film stars Julie Ledru as Julia, a young woman living in social housing who has a poor relationship with her mother; passionate about the sport of motocross, she tries to gain the opportunity to participate in the sport by posing as a buyer on shopping websites so that she can take bikes out for test rides. As she becomes drawn deeper into the urban motocross scene, however, she begins to participate in a motorcycle theft ring.
Power Alley is a drama film, directed by Lillah Halla and released in 2023. The film centres on Sofia, a 17-year-old volleyball player in Brazil who is on the verge of being offered an athletic scholarship, when she unexpectedly finds herself pregnant and must struggle to find a way to get an abortion in light of the political and legal situation in the country.
Beating Hearts is a 2024 romantic comedy musical film directed by Gilles Lellouche from a screenplay he co-wrote with Audrey Diwan, Ahmed Hamidi and Julien Lambroschini, based on the 1997 Irish novel Jackie Loves Johnser OK? by Neville Thompson. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium. It stars François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos. The ensemble cast includes Malik Frikah, Mallory Wanecque, Alain Chabat, Benoît Poelvoorde, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Élodie Bouchez, Karim Leklou, Raphaël Quenard and Anthony Bajon.
Rosalie is a 2023 historical drama film directed by Stéphanie Di Giusto from a screenplay by Di Giusto and Sandrine Le Coustumer, based on a treatment by Le Coustumer and Alexandra Echkenazi. The film stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Benoît Magimel. It is loosely inspired by the life of Clémentine Delait, a famous French bearded lady from the beginning of the 20th century.
Acid is a 2023 French-language fantasy drama film directed by Just Philippot from a screenplay by Philippot and Yacine Badday. The film is a co-production between France and Belgium. It is an expansion of Philippot's 2018 short film of the same name.
An Ordinary Case is a 2024 French legal drama film written, directed and starring Daniel Auteuil, as a lawyer hired to defend a client accused of his wife's murder.
Emmanuelle Nicot is a French film director and screenwriter. She is also a casting director, specialising in the recruitment of non-professional actors.
Misericordia is a 2024 thriller film written and directed by Alain Guiraudie. Its stars Félix Kysyl and Catherine Frot.
Being Maria is a 2024 biographical drama film co-written and directed by Jessica Palud. It is an adaptation of Vanessa Schneider's 2018 memoir My Cousin Maria Schneider. It is about the actress Maria Schneider (1952–2011) and dramatizes her experiences working on Bernardo Bertolucci's feature film Last Tango in Paris (1972). It stars Anamaria Vartolomei in the title role, with Yvan Attal and Matt Dillon in supporting roles.
Filmlovers! is a 2024 docufiction drama film written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin. It stars Milo Machado-Graner, Mathieu Amalric and Françoise Lebrun. It features the character of Paul Dédalus, who appeared in Desplechin's earlier films My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (1996) and My Golden Days (2015). Acoording to Desplechin the film is meant to "celebrate movie theaters and their manifold magic".
