Leos Carax, born in 1960 in France, is the author of seven feature films and one of the most revered filmmakers among cinephiles worldwide. In the late 1970s, at just 20 years old, Carax joined the editorial staff of the renowned Cahiers du Cinéma, under the direction of influential French film critic Serge Daney as editor-in-chief. His first review, of Paradise Alley (1978), Sylvester Stallone’s directorial debut, immediately revealed Carax’s eccentric and demanding outlook, laying the groundwork for his later cinematic theory. Like Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and others from what became known as the "yellow cover" phase of Cahiers, Carax left film criticism to pursue a career in directing. His first short film, Strangulation Blues (1979), won the Grand Prix du Courts Métrages at the Hyères Film Festival in 1981. At just twenty-four, he directed Boy Meets Girl (1984), which won the Youth Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Two years later, he released Mauvais Sang (1986), which received the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and the Louis Delluc Prize. Carax has since created a unique cinematic universe, making each of his film premieres a significant event. His provocative and surreal Holy Motors (2012) won numerous awards and was selected for the Cannes Film Festival competition. Annette, a fantastical and hallucinatory rock opera, opened the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director Award. His most recent film, It’s Not Me (2024), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and will be shown at LEFFEST, in his third appearance at the festival: in 2011, there was a tribute dedicated to his oeuvre and, in 2023, the film Bad Blood (1986) was shown in the Special Screenings section.
