Mathieu Amalric

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Mathieu Amalric is an actor and director, the son of journalists Jacques Amalric, a foreign correspondent at Le Monde, and Nicole Zand, a literary critic for the same newspaper. At eighteen years of age, his first experience as an actor came with a small role in Les Favoris de la lune by Otar Iosseliani, during which his interest in the inner workings of cinema grew, something which would subsequently lead him to work as an assistant director. He directs his first short film in the 80’s, Marre de café, and then Sans Rires (1991), which he screened at the Premiers Plans d’Angers Festival. It is on this occasion that he meets Arnaud Desplechin, who would, years later, offer him a role in Comment je me suis disputé…(ma vie sexuelle), a film which won him the César for Most Promising Actor in 1997. In the same year, he directs his first autobiographical feature film, Mange ta soupe. In 2004, he resumes his collaboration with Arnaud Desplechin in the film Rois et Reine, for which he received the César for Best Actor. Also coveted by American cinema, he acted in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, Le Scafandre et le papillon by Julian Schnabel, Quantum of Solace by Marc Forster and, most recently, The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. He returned to directing in 2010 with Tournée, his fourth feature-film. He received the Prix de la Mise en Scène at the Cannes Festival, consolidating his status as a director. In 2015 he directed La Chambre Bleue, an adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel, screened as part of the section Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival. This year he also acted in À Jamais, a film by Benoît Jacquot, an adaptation of The Body Artist by Don DeLillo.