Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert is one of the most versatile actors in the world, and has played an impressive range of characters in almost 150 cinema and television productions.

Isabelle Huppert began studying acting at the age of 14, and later attended the Conservatoire nationale supérieur d'art dramatique in Paris. This was followed by first experiences on stage and in film. Her starring performance as the shy young woman Béatrice in Claude Goretta’s ‘La Dentellière’ (F/FRG/CH 1977) won her the BAFTA as Most Promising Newcomer. Huppert early on came to the attention of a host of top filmmakers, such as Jean-Luc Godard and Bertrand Tavernier. Her first turn for Godard was as the star of his ‘Sauve qui peut (la vie)’ (F/CH/FRG/AUS 1980). Other world-renowned directors soon seized on Huppert’s diverse acting talents, including Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, Andrzej Wajda, Marco Bellocchio and Joachim Trier, as well as American filmmakers such as Michael Cimino, Curtis Hanson, Hal Hartley, Ira Sachs und David O. Russell.

French acclaimed director Claude Chabrol cast Isabelle Huppert in a total of seven films, with each character as mutable and complex as the next. In ‘La Cérémonie’ (G 1995) Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire played a pair of homicidal friends, a role that won her a César. The actors’s film career has also been shaped by her work with Austrian director Michael Haneke, with whom she has made four movies.  Her outstanding lead performance in his controversial 2001 drama ‘La Pianiste’ (F/AUS/G 2001) brought her accolades as Best Actress in Cannes and at the European Film Awards, among others.

Isabelle Huppert has been nominated for the French film prize César more than any other actress in France, and has twice won one.  Her virtuoso acting style has also brought her two Palmes D’Or at Cannes. She has appeared in more than 20 films shown in competition there — yet another record. She won a Golden Globe as Best Actress for her work in the thriller ‘Elle’ (B 2016, Regie: Paul Verhoeven). That role as a successful businesswoman who takes revenge on her rapist also resulted in her first Academy Award nomination.

Isabelle Huppert has been closely linked with the film festival for many years and starred in seven Competition films to date. The ensemble cast of François Ozon’s  ‘8 Femmes’ (F/I 2002) was awarded a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic accomplishment. In ‘L’Avenir’ (F/G 2016), she also plays a woman re-discovering her freedom as a philosophy teacher in a failing marriage. Director Mia Hansen-Løve won the Silver Bear as Best Director for the film.