Jacques Audiard Writer - Born April 30, 1952 in Paris, France

Height 5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Bio (1) Born in Paris, France, in 1952. Jacques Audiard's family has always been involved in movie business. His father, Michel, was a popular screenwriter and director and his uncle a producer. But in his teens he refused that world and wanted to be a teacher. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne but didn't finish his degree. By that time, his then girlfriend suggested he work as a trainee editor during his university holidays. He worked as an assistant editor on several movies like "Le locataire" (1976) directed by Roman Polanski.

He also joined a theater where he did all kinds of work. He specially enjoyed adapting works for stage. In the eighties he wrote the screenplays of some successful movies like "Mortelle Randonnee" (1983), "Reveillon Chez Bob" (1984), "Saxo" (1987), "Frequence meurtre" (1988) and "Grosse fatigue" (1994). Most of those films were thrillers directed by prestigious filmmakers like Claude Miller and Michel Blanc. He also directed some well received short movies.

Thanks to the success of those movies he was able, in 1994, to raise up the money to make his first movie "Regarde les hommes tomber" a somber road movie starred by two of the most important French actors: Mathieu Kassovitz and Jean Louis Trintignant. That movie won 3 Cesars of the French academy for best editing, best new director (Jacques Audiard) and best new actor (for Kassovitz).

Kassovitz also became the star of his second movie "Un heros tres discret" released in the Festival de Cannes in 1996 where it won the award for best screenplay. "Un heros tres discret" undermined the myth of the French resistance to the Nazis by telling the story of a young impostor who rises high in French society after World war by concocting a past for himself as a hero. It also won awards in the festivals of Stockholm and Valladolid and made his name internationally.

In 2001 he made his third movie "Sur mes levres". The love story between two outsiders (a deaf office worker and a hoodlum) who decide to con a group of gangsters also became a success. It also won three Cesars (best actress, sound and screenplay).

His last movie, "De battre mon Coeur sest arrête" (a remake of "Fingers" a James Toback's movie) was released in the Berlin festival of 2005.

With those movies, Audiard has become the new master of the "polar" (French thriller) and inheritor of others great French directors like Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-1973) and Henri Georges-Clouzot (1907-1977).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Enrique Bocanegra [email protected]

Spouse (1) Marion Vernoux (? - ?) (divorced) (3 children)

Son of Michel Audiard.

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 2002.

Brother of François Audiard.

Directed 6 actors in César winner performances: Mathieu Kassovitz in See How They Fall (1994), Emmanuelle Devos in Read My Lips (2001), Niels Arestrup and Linh Dan Pham in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup in A Prophet (2009) and Matthias Schoenaerts in Rust and Bone (2012).

Directed 8 actors in César nominated performances: Albert Dupontel and Sandrine Kiberlain in A Self-Made Hero (1996), Vincent Cassel in Read My Lips (2001), Romain Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), Adel Bencherif in A Prophet (2009), Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone (2012), Jesuthasan Antonythasan and Vincent Rottiers in Dheepan (2015).

As of 2015, four of his films competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival: A Self-Made Hero (1996), A Prophet (2009), Rust and Bone (2012) and Dheepan (2015), the latter took the prize in 2015. He was nominated for the first time with his second film, A Self-Made Hero (1996).

As of 2016, he has a total of 19 César nominations; 6 nominations for Best Director; 5 nominations for Best Film; 7 nominations for Best Screenplay (original and adapted) and one nomination for Best First Work for See How They Fall (1994).

With the exception of Rust and Bone (2012), all of his films that were screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival have won an award over there. Rust and Bone was highly acclaimed at the festival and received a 10-minute standing ovation.

As of 2013, he has a total of 3 BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Film and 2 wins (for The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) and A Prophet (2009).

As of 2016, Rust and Bone (2012) is the highest-grossing film of his career, with $25 million worldwide.

A Prophet (2009) is maybe the point at which I began to feel uncomfortable with the French casting system. I felt like I needed to direct other faces, other skin colors, other ways of speaking and thinking, other forms of expression from what we are used to seeing.

I really believe the form of the film must be in the scenario; cinema is not just added value to the scripting. I believe in it as a totality. There was a specific problem with this film, which we saw often during the writing: the clash between realism and stylisation. You had constantly to be looking for an equilibrium. If it's too realistic, it's boring. If it's too stylised, you don't believe it.

You need something to say about the place where you make films. I know Europe. The US I don't know so well. I need a film that sees something, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) did for Milos Forman. It makes it worth the trip.

[on Dheepan (2015)] What interested me was the position of someone different in society. How the people who sell us roses when we're sitting in a cafe live and where they come from. If it helps their situation, then so much the better.

[on Marion Cotillard] For me she's almost like an actress of the silent cinema, like Louise Brooks. And she's also fearless, she throws herself into scenes - literally.

Jacques Audiard (French: [ʒak odjaʁ]; born 30 April 1952) is a French film director and screenwriter. He is the son of Michel Audiard, also a screenwriter and film director.

He has won both the César Award for Best Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language twice, in 2005 for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and in 2010 for A Prophet, as well as winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

His 2012 film Rust and Bone, competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the BFI London Film Festival Award for Best Film.

His 2015 film Dheepan won the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.