Award to Isabelle Huppert

Daughter to the CEO of a company producing safes and to an English teacher, Isabelle Huppert was born on March 16, 1953 in Paris. She made her film debut in “Faustine et le Bel Été” (1972), swiftly leading to supporting roles in notable films from the 1970s (“César and Rosalie”, “Going Places”, “The Judge and the Assassin”). In 1976, she interpreted Pomme, an apprentice hairdresser marked by unfathomable sadness, in “The Lacemaker” by Claude Goretta, a delicate work that introduced her to the general public. At the age of twenty-five, Huppert received the Best Actress award in Cannes for her role as a parricide in Chabrol’s “Violette Nozière” (1978). From then on, she collaborated with the most demanding French directors, including Godard (“Every Man for Himself”, “Passion”) and Pialat (“Loulou”), gaining the reputation of an intellectual actress. She headed to Hollywood to star in Cimino’s western “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), achieving international recognition. At the same time, the successes of “Coup de Torchon” (1981) and “Entre Nous” (1983) ensured her popularity in France. She continued her fruitful collaboration with Chabrol: for him, she interpreted Madame Bovary, as well as a back-alley abortionist (“Story of Women”) and a criminal postwoman (“La Cérémonie”) – two films for which she received awards in Venice in 1988 and 1995 –, a perverse boss (“Merci pour le chocolat”) and a tenacious judge (“Comedy of Power”). From the 2000s onward, she explored the boundaries between reason and madness thanks to her roles with Schroeter, Mazuy (“The King’s Daughters”), and in her forays into comedy (“8 Women”, “Les Soeurs fâchées”). Accumulating awards and honours (Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her interpretation of a frustrated pianist in Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher”, Special Lifetime Achievement Awards at San Sebastian in 2003 and Venice Film Festival in 2005), the tireless Huppert worked with the cream of French auteur cinema (Doillon, Jacquot, Assayas, Chéreau). She went to Cambodia for “The Sea Wall” (2008), to Cameroon for “White Material”, and to Italy for “Villa Amalia”, both released in 2009. Also in 2009, Huppert chaired the Cannes Film Festival jury. The following year, the actress interpreted the lunatic mother of Lolita Chammah (her real-life daughter) in Marc Fitoussi’s dramatic comedy “Copacabana” (2010), before taking on the role of a prostitute seeking to rebuild her life in “Sans queue ni tête” by Jeanne Labrune. In 2011, she shared the screen with Benoît Poelvoorde in “My Worst Nightmare”, directed by Anne Fontaine. The following year, the actress starred in Valeria Sarmiento’s historical film “Lines of Wellington”. 2012 was a significant year for Isabelle, as she appeared in several prestigious films, including “In Another Country” and “Captive”, where she strongly portrayed a woman taken hostage in the Philippines. Michael Haneke chose her too to act in the multi-award winning “Amour”. In 2013, she became Mother Superior for Guillaume Nicloux in “The Nun”. She then crossed the Atlantic to star alongside Colin Farrell in the action thriller “Dead Man Down”. Also in 2013, she interpreted a filmmaker manipulated by Kool Shen in Catherine Breillat’s “Abuse of Weakness”. In 2015, she reunited with Guillaume Nicloux to shoot “Valley of Love”, a drama in which she played Gérard Depardieu’s ex-wife. In 2016, she starred in four films, including “Elle” by Paul Verhoeven, a highly successful thriller that earned Huppert the Golden Globe and the César Award for Best Actress. In 2017, she reunited with director Michael Haneke in “Happy End”, a snapshot of a European bourgeois family. Always ready to take part into atypical projects, Isabelle appeared in “Claire’s Camera” (2017) by Hong Sang-soo, “White as Snow” (2019) by Anne Fontaine, and “Frankie” (2019) by Ira Sachs. The actress also transformed into a terrifying serial killer in “Greta” (2018). She portrayed a drug dealer in the comedy “Mama Weed” (2020), then the mayor of a town on the outskirts of Paris in “Promises” (2021). The following year, she received an Honorary Golden Bear for her career at the 2022 Berlinale and worked under the direction of Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski on the environmental drama “EO” (2022), centred around the theme of animal slaughter. With this impactful film that received both critical and public acclaim, Huppert became the actress who presented the highest number of films in the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival. Once again, she was praised by the critics for her performance in The Sitting Duck (2022), a Franco-German thriller directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and based on a true story.