Elementary
Documentary, France, 2024, 105’
Official selection, Cannes film festival (2024)
Career
French director
Born in London, she studied Arab and Berber ethnology, before taking up editing courses at the Cinémathèque d'Alger. She made her first self-taught short films in the late 70s. Her time at the Ateliers Varan proved decisive, as she discovered the virtues of direct cinema and decided to move into documentary film. Alongside her work as an editor, she made several short films and then signed up for a series of dramas for the small screen, Scènes de ménage. A year later, with Récréations (documentary), she filmed human comedies in the playground of a nursery school. The film was released in 1997. Parallely, the filmmaker made a name for herself in the documentary world with Coûte que coûte.
In 1997, she made her first feature film, Sinon oui, inspired by a true story and presented in Cannes as part of Cinémas en France. Drawing on authentic stories that testify her taste for romance, she filmed her daughter's flirtations (800 km de difference) and the story of a lifetime (Mimi). In 2006, she returned to the realm of pure fiction with Ça brûle, presented at the Directors' Fortnight, followed by Les Bureaux de Dieu, drawing a thin line between documentary and fiction. We find this characteristic again in Gare du Nord in 2013 and Géographie humaine, where the filmmaker compares our passage on earth to a passage through a railway station. In her acclaimed documentary Le Bois dont les rêves sont faits, Claire Simon films the Bois de Vincennes as a place where people come to find refuge and invent their own utopia. Her documentary Le Concours was awarded the prize for best cinema documentary at the 2016 Venice Biennale. In 2023, she directed the documentary film Notre corps, which traces the lives of women in hospital throughout their lives. After its theatrical release, the film was shortlisted for the César Awards in 2024, as well as a number of French and international festivals.
She has been a member and trainer at the Ateliers Varan since 1993, and was head of the directing department at the Fémis for eleven years.
Filmography
director
Our body
Documentary, France, 2022, 168
Premiered at the Cinema du Reel (2023) ; Many festival selections including the Cesars (2024)
Garages, Engines and men
Documentary, France, 2021, 71’
The grocer’s son, the mayor, the village and the world
Documentary, France, 2020, 210’
Young solitude
Documentary, France, 2018, 100’
The competition
Documentary, France, 2016, 121’
Prize for best documentary at the Venice Mostra (2016)
The Woods dreams are made of
Documentary, France, 2015, 146’
Locarno Film Festival, Entrevues, Belfort, IFFR, Rotterdam; RIDM, Montréal; Nominated for the Louis-Delluc prize, (2016)
Human geography
Documentary, France, 2013, 100’
FEDEORA prize at the Crossing Europe Festival (2014); “Independent hero” mention at Indie Lisboa (Lisbon, 2014)
Gare du Nord
Fiction, France, 2013, 119’
Golden Leopard at the Locarno film festival (2013)
God’s office
Fiction, France, 2013, 119’
SACD Grand prize at the director’s fortnight, Cannes Film Festival
On fire
Fiction, France, 2006, 111’
Director’s fortnight, Cannes film festival
Est-ce qu’on gagne ou est-ce qu’on a encore perdu ?
Documentary, France, 2004, 40’
Mimi
Documentary, France, 2002, 107’
FID Marseille (2002) ; Filmer à tout prix, (Brussels, 2002) ; Doclisboa 03 (Lisbonne) ; Grand prize at the eco cinéma festival (Rhodes) ; International documentary encounters (Montreal, 2004)
800 km de différence
Documentary, France, 2001, 78’
FID Marseille (2001) ; Etats Généraux de Lussas, RIDM (Montréal)
Ça c’est vraiment toi
Documentary and fiction, France, 1999, 116’
Fiction and documentary grand prize at Entrevues festival (Belfort, 2000) ; Locarno Festival (2000) ; Cinema Europpen (Strasburg)
A foreign body
Fiction, France, 1997, 120’
Director’s fortnight, Cannes Film Festival : SACD Script grand prize at the franco-american days in Avignon
At all costs
Documentary, France, 1995, 100’
Louis Marcorelles prize at the Cinema du Réel ; Documentary grand prize at the Potsdam festival (1995) ; Special Jury prize at the New medias of Montréal (1995) ; Jury prize at the Mulhouse festival; Joris Ivens award at the IDFA (Amsterdam, 1995)
Récréations
Documentary, France, 1992, 54’
Cinéma du Réel (1993), Encontros internacionais d'Amascultura, Portugal ; Lepizig festival ; Santiago Chile festival (1998)
Scènes de ménage
TV fiction series, France, 1991, 10x5’
Grand prize at the Festival de films de femmes (Creteil, 1992)
The patients
Documentary, France, 1989, 75’
Heritage prize at the Cinéma du Réel (1990) ; Women’s films festival (Montreal)
The Police
Short film, 1988
Prize at the Entrevues Festival (Belfort, 1988)
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