Valérie Donzelli • President of the Short Films Jury
© Gil Lesage
Biography
After her architecture studies, Valérie Donzelli changed her interests towards movies. First as an actress, in Sandrine Veysset’s dark Martha. A first role that will earn her the prestigious Michel Simon Prize in 2000.
She landed parts in Agnès Varda’s short film as well as Guillaume Nicloux and Anne Fontaine’s feature length films before directing her first short, Il fait beau dans la plus belle des villes du monde, in 2007. Her first feature length film, is a musical released in 2010, La Reine des pommes. As a filmmaker, she established the foundations for a personal cinema, sometimes playful sometimes serious, but always poetic.
Valérie Donzelli acquired international renown with her second feature, La guerre est déclarée, which opened the 50th Critics Week in 2011. Building on its critical success, she directed one more time her fetish actor Jérémie Elkaïm in Hand in Hand (2011) with Valérie Lemercier and in the incestuous tale Marguerite et Julien (2015).
In 2016, Valérie Donzelli presides the Jury of the 55th Critics Week. Her next feature, Notre Dame, will star Pierre Deladonchamps, Philippe Katerine, Virginie Ledoyen and Thomas Scimeca.
