Born in Dijon in 1960, Patricia Mazuy initially pursued studies at HEC Business School to fulfill her father’s wishes but soon dropped out and moved to Los Angeles. There, she met Agnès Varda and editor Sabine Mamou.
In 1982, Mazuy was hired by Mamou as a trainee in Une chambre en ville (1982), a film by Jacques Demy. Two years later, she was hired by Varda to work on Sans toit ni loi (1985), sharing editing credits with the director. Her role went beyond the editing room. Beyond editing, Mazuy played a key role in helping form the cast of characters (played mostly by non-actors that lived in the area where the film was shot) with which the protagonist interacts.
Mazuy’s connection to the rural world became a defining trait in her work. Her debut feature, Peaux de vaches (1989), about two brothers who accidentally burn down their family farm, resulting in an unexpected death, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1990, she won the César Award for Best First Feature Film.
In the following decade, Mazuy expanded her work into television. In 1992, she revisited rural themes with Des taureaux et des vaches, a documentary about cattle funded by the Ministry of Agriculture. The following year, her film Travolta et moi, part of the series Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge, won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.
Her second feature film, Saint-Cyr (2000), marked her return to cinema, specifically to the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section. The film, which won the Youth Award, tells the story of Madame de Maintenon, the secret wife of Louis XIV, and her efforts to establish a school for young girls.
After extended gaps between projects, Mazuy directed Basse Normandie (2004) and Sport de filles (2011) before returning with Paul Sanchez est revenu! in 2018. In 2022, Bowling Saturne premiered in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival. Two years later, her seventh feature film, La Prisonnière de Bordeaux, premiered at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes during the Cannes Film Festival.
Patricia Mazuy’s work is defined by a realism grounded in the characters’ emotions, with a vision ferocious in its clarity on human relations and the way these are shaped by the spaces they inhabit, with particular attention to the rural world, inspired by the origins of the director.