Nicole Garcia, President of the Feature Film Jury

After an early career devoted to theater, Nicole Garcia first came to public attention in Que la fête commence (Let Joy Reign Supreme) by Bertrand Tavernier. She went on to play a number of striking roles, including in Laurent Heynemann’s La Question (The Question), Jacques Rivette’s Duelle, Philippe de Broca’s Le Cavaleur (Practice Makes Perfect), Alain Resnais’ Mon oncle d'Amérique (My American Uncle), Claude Lelouch’s Les Uns et les Autres (Bolero), Bertrand Blier’s Beau-père (Stepfather), Pierre Schoendoerffer’s L'Honneur d'un capitaine (A Captein’s Honour), José Pinheiro’s Les Mots pour le dire, Claude Sautet’s Garçon (Waiter!), Michel Deville’s Péril en la demeure (Death in a French Garden), Brigitte Rouan’s Outremer (Overseas), Claude Miller’s Betty Fischer et autres histoires (Betty Fischer and Other Stories) and La Petite Lily, and Claire Simon’s Gare du Nord. 

Behind the camera, Nicole Garcia has become an accomplished and recognised filmmaker. After the short film 15 août, she offered Nathalie Baye a role in Un week-end sur deux (Every Other Weekend), nominated for Best First Feature at the Césars and directed Le Fils préféré with Gérard Lanvin, who won the César for Best Actor, Bernard Giraudeau and Jean-Marc Barr, followed by Place Vendôme. For this role, Catherine Deneuve won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. She successfully adapted Emmanuel Carrère in L'Adversaire (The Adversary), starring Daniel Auteuil. This film was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. She returned to Cannes with Selon Charlie (According to Charlie), an ensemble comedy-drama starring Jean-Pierre Bacri, Benoît Magimel and Vincent Lindon. 

She gave an emotional evocation of the Algeria of her childhood in Un balcon sur la mer (A View of Love), starring Jean Dujardin, and wrote a luminous film about the weight of the past in Un beau dimanche (Going Away), starring Louise Bourgoin and Pierre Rochefort. She returned to the competition in Cannes with Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon) adapted from the novel by Milena Agus and starring Marion Cotillard. In her next film, Amants (Lovers), presented in Venice, she directed a love triangle in a thriller of feelings with Pierre Niney, Stacy Martin and Benoît Magimel.

At the same time, she has continued her acting career in films by Bruno Podalydès, Sébastien Lifshitz, Lucas Belvaux, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Safy Nebbou, Laurent Laffite, Mia Hansen-Løve and this year in Marcello mio by Christophe Honoré.