Olivier Assayas

One of France’s most gifted young filmmakers; Olivier Assayas studied at L’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Knowing from childhood that he wanted to make movies (his father was a screenwriter in the pre-New Wave era), Assayas believed that literature, painting, and drawing would be better preparation for making films than going to film school. Throughout the early 1980s he was a critic for the prestigious journal Cahiers du Cinéma, served on the journal’s editorial board, and wrote screenplays for such directors as Laurent Perrin and André Téchiné. His earliest efforts at directing were four shorts completed between 1979 and 1985 and his first feature, DISORDER, enjoyed a brief period as a cult classic after its release in France in 1986. His subsequent films include WINTER’S CHILD, PARIS AT DAWN, UNE NOUVELLE VIE, COLD WATER (1994), IRMA VEP (1996), LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER (1998), LES DESTINEES (2000), DEMONLOVER (2002), CLEAN (2004), BOARDING GATE (2007) SUMMER HOURS (2009) and CARLOS (2010).