Jacques Audiard | |
|---|---|
 Audiard at the2017 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | (1952-04-30)30 April 1952 (age 73) Paris, France |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1974–present |
| Father | Michel Audiard |
Jacques Audiard (French:[ʒakodjaʁ]; born 30 April 1952) is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter. One of the most awarded French filmmakers in history, his international accolades include anAcademy Award, three BAFTA Awards, and threeGolden Globes. He holds the record for most individual wins in the history of theCésar Awards, France's national film awards, with thirteen wins between 1995 and 2025 including three separateBest Film/Best Director/Best Screenplay trifectas, and won four prizes from theCannes Film Festival.
After working extensively as a screenwriter since the 1970s, Audiard made his directorial debut withSee How They Fall (1994), followed byA Self-Made Hero (1996) andRead My Lips (2001). His dramaThe Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) was seen as his breakout film, earning him a BAFTA and his first César trifecta, followed by a second for the prison crime dramaA Prophet (2009), which earned a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. AfterDheepan (2015), mostly inTamil language and which won him Cannes'Palme d'Or, he made hisEnglish-language debut with thewesternThe Sisters Brothers (2018) and hisSpanish-language debut with the musicalEmilia Pérez (2024), which won Golden Globes forBest Musical or Comedy andBest Foreign Language Film, and also earned Audiard anAcademy Award for Best Original Song (for "El Mal") along with three nominations forBest Picture,Best Director, andBest Adapted Screenplay.
Audiard was born in Paris, the son of Marie-Christine Guibert andMichel Audiard, who was a film director and screenwriter.[1] He began his screenwriting career in the 1980s with films includingRéveillon chez Bob!,Mortelle randonnée,Baxter,Fréquence Meurtre, andSaxo.
In 1994, he directedSee How They Fall (French: Regarde les hommes tomber), aroad movie starringMathieu Kassovitz andJean-Louis Trintignant. The film won theCésar Award for best first film and the Prix Georges-Sadoul. Two years later he reunited with Kassovitz and Trintignant forUn Héros Très Discret – A Self-Made Hero in English, adapted from the novel byJean-François Deniau. In 1996,A Self-Made Hero won theBest Screenplay Award at Cannes and received six César Awards nominations. In 2002,Read My Lips was nominated for nine Césars and won three, for Best Actress (Emmanuelle Devos), Best Screenplay and Best Sound. His fourth movie,De Battre Mon Cœur s'est Arrêté, received 10 nominations at the Césars and won eight, among them the Césars for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Film Music and Best Cinematography. He has won both theCésar Award for Best Film and theBAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language twice, in 2005 forThe Beat That My Heart Skipped and in 2010 forA Prophet, as well as winning theGrand Prix at theCannes Film Festival.
In 2009,A Prophet won the Grand Prix at Cannes and the BAFTA award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and was nominated for 13 César Awards, winning nine: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Most Promising Actor forTahar Rahim, Best Supporting Actor forNiels Arestrup, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Production Design. His 2012 filmRust and Bone competed for thePalme d'Or at the2012 Cannes Film Festival,[2][3] was nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and theGolden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and won theBFI London Film Festival Award for Best Film. In 2015, his seventh movie,Dheepan won thePalme d'Or at the2015 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5]
Audiard is one of the first filmmakers to participate in LaCinetek's project, a streaming platform where the films are curated exclusively from lists of favorites by acclaimed directors.[6] Published on the platform's launch day, his list of 61 films[7] notably includesCharlie Chaplin's series of comedies from bothEssanay Studios andKeystone Studios. He has released some music videos, among themComme Elle Vient byNoir Désir in which all the actors were deaf-mute and interpreted the lyrics of the song in sign language. The beginning of the feature (a sequence with subtitles) created a minor scandal; it displayed three women discussing politics who come to the conclusion that "it is better to be deaf than to listen to that".
On 2 September 2018, his first English language American filmThe Sisters Brothers had its world premiere at theVenice Film Festival.[8]
In 2022, a five episode special about Audiard's pre-production process was released byTélérama.[9] It was revealed that Audiard was in development of a script adaptation of the opera librettoEmilia Pérez, this would mark the first time Audiard has written a film alone. Filming began in the summer of 2023 withSelena Gomez andZoe Saldana.[10] The film premiere at the77th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2024. It later won the Jury Prize, and its female ensemble won the Best Actress award at the festival. It went on to be selected as the French entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.[11]
Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez faced significant criticism for its portrayal ofMexico. The film, a Spanish-language musical set in Mexico, was shot entirely in a studio near Paris with a predominantly non-Mexican cast and crew. Many Mexican audiences and critics found its depiction of their country stereotypical, reducing it to a landscape of violence, drug cartels, and gangsters, while using the real-life crisis of missing persons as a backdrop for musical numbers.[12] Héctor Guillén labeled the film a “racist Eurocentrist mockery,” even calling on the Academy to take note of Mexico’s disapproval.[13] In response, Mexican trans filmmaker Camila Aurora createdJohanne Sacreblu, a parody that exaggerated French stereotypes, as a form of critique.[14] Initially, Audiard seemed dismissive of the backlash, stating, “I didn’t study [Mexico] much. What I needed to know I already knew a little bit”. However, at a press conference in Mexico, he later apologized, acknowledging the concerns.
The controversy deepened on August 21, 2024, when Audiard stated in an interview with Konbini, a French digital media platform, that “Spanish is a language of emerging, developing countries, of modest people, of the poor, and of migrants”.[15] Following further criticism, the director attempted to clarify his remarks, claiming they had been taken out of context and did not reflect his appreciation for the Spanish language or the cultures that speak it.[16]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1974 | Kisses Till Monday |
| 1981 | The Professional |
| 1983 | Deadly Circuit |
| 1984 | Réveillon chez Bob |
| 1985 | All Mixed Up |
| 1987 | Killing Time |
| 1988 | Saxo |
| Fréquence meurtre | |
| 1989 | Baxter |
| Australia | |
| 1991 | Swing troubadour |
| 1992 | Confessions d'un Barjo |
| 1994 | Dead Tired |
| 1999 | Venus Beauty Institute |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1998 | Norme française |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Black Sequence | No | Yes | Episode "L'ennemi public n° 2" |
| 2020 | The Bureau | Yes | Yes | Directed 2 episodes, wrote 4 episodes |
| Association | Year | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filmfest Hamburg | 2024 | Douglas Sirk Award | Honored | [42] |
| Morelia International Film Festival | 2024 | Artistic Excellence Award | Honored | [43] |
| Stockholm International Film Festival | 2012 | Stockholm Visionary Award | Honored | [44] |
| Telluride Film Festival | 2024 | Silver Medallion | Honored | [45] |
| Valladolid International Film Festival | 2013 | Espiga de Honor | Honored | [46] |
