Alexandre AJA

Born in Paris on August 7, 1978 to a French director and a cinema critic, Alexandre AJA practically grew up on a film set during his formative years. His roles range from that of writer, director and producer, alongside his frequent collaborator and friend Grégory LEVASSEUR. He is a member of the so-called Splat Pack, a term coined for a new wave of directors who have revolutionized the horror genre including Rob ZOMBIE, Zack SNYDER and Eli ROTH.

AJA made his directorial debut at the age of eighteen with the short film Over The Rainbow, which received a Golden Palm Award nomination at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1999, after graduating from Sorbonne in Philosophy, he wrote the screenplay and directed his first feature Furia, a futurist movie starring Marion COTILLARD based on a short story by Julio CORTÁZAR.

But it was the release of Haute Tension (High Tension) in 2003, which placed AJA on the map for the horror genre. The French slasher pushed the gore and tension envelope at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals, where it garnered media acclaim for AJA. The film was nominated for the grand prize at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, earned AJA awards for best direction and best fantasy film at the Catalonian International Film Festival and placed him on Variety’s – Ten Directors to Watch list in 2004.

For his third feature, American director Wes CRAVEN asked AJA to come up with a concept for the remake of his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes, which became a cult classic. After the success of Hills, AJA wrote, directed and produced Mirrors, a supernatural thriller for FOX starring Kiefer SUTHERLAND and Paula PATTON. He also produced the indie thriller P2 directed by Franck KHALFOUN for Summit. In 2010, AJA directed and produced Piranha 3D along with Dimension Films. The fresh mix of humor and gore, played homage to the popcorn films of the past, garnered unanimous positive reviews and became another cult success.

AJA’s most recent film, Horns – based on the novel by Joe HILL, stars Daniel RADCLIFFE and was produced by Mandalay and Red Granite Pictures. This supernatural romance thriller premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2013, and was hailed by Bloody Disgusting as an “edgy, audacious and affecting romantic fairy tale, dark comedy and compelling mystery unlike anything you’ve seen before,” it was released by TWC/Radius in October 2014.

In the past few years AJA has expanded his production slate and has produced a wide range of projects. The most recent success was Maniac – a film he co-wrote and produced alongside Oscar winning producer Thomas LANGMANN and starring Elijah WOOD. It had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was released by IFC Films in 2013. Alex has also produced two films with FOX: The Pyramid, directed by his long-time collaborator Gregory LEVASSEUR, is an adventure-horror film set in an ancient Egyptian pyramid released in December 2014; and The Other Side Of The Door, a haunted-house possession thriller he produced in India, directed by Johannes ROBERTS released in 2016.