---
name: "Florian Zeller"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/florian-zeller"
fi1m_id: "florian-zeller"
imdb_id: "nm1725469"
tmdb_id: 1150548
wikidata_id: "Q3074245"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "28 June 1979"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 66
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-17T17:08:47.767082+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Florian Zeller

## Identity

Florian Zeller

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/florian-zeller
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** florian-zeller
- **IMDb ID:** nm1725469
- **TMDB ID:** 1150548
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3074245
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Zeller, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3074245, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1725469/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1150548

Director and writer. Born 28 June 1979 in Paris, France.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 28 June 1979, Paris, France
- **Active:** 2020–present
- **Frequently works with:** [Anthony Hopkins](https://film.one/person/anthony-hopkins.md), [Christopher Hampton](https://film.one/person/christopher-hampton.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as director, over 2 titles
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Zeller, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3074245, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1725469/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1150548

## Coming up

- *Bunker* (2027-02-19), Writer

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Father*](https://film.one/film/the-father.md) (89)
- **Disney+:** [*The Son*](https://film.one/film/the-son.md) (43)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Florian Zeller

> Florian Zeller makes family dramas about people who cannot understand what is happening to those closest to them. We admire his ambition, but *The Son* exposes a serious weakness: he explains the parents’ distress until the child scarcely registers.

Hugh Jackman’s Peter can manage a successful legal career, but he cannot work out how to help his son. In *The Son* (2022), Zeller gives that failure of confidence a credible actor and too many explanations. Jackman finds painful uncertainty in a father who wants to do the right thing. Then the dialogue tells us how much he is suffering, although the performance has already made it plain.

Zeller came to film by adapting his own plays, making his directing debut with *The Father* (2020) before following it with *The Son*. The earlier film showed that he could turn a stage work into cinema rather than merely record it. Christopher Hampton has joined him on the screenplays. The change between the two films matters: *The Son* takes a simpler approach, which puts more pressure on the writing of individual characters.

Zeller and Hampton are right to take Peter’s guilt seriously, and right to resist a neat explanation for teenage depression. The difficulty is where they keep our attention. *The Son* gives the adults repeated opportunities to describe their distress, while Nicholas, played by Zen McGrath, remains thinly written. We were frustrated because each further explanation of the parents’ anguish brought us no closer to the boy. We needed some sense of Nicholas outside these conversations, something that would let us imagine a person with a life beyond the problem his parents are trying to solve.

Zeller has written with particular actors in mind, including Anthony Hopkins for *The Father*. That attention to the performer is encouraging, and Jackman’s work shows why it matters: his uncertainty makes Peter worth watching even when the dialogue is letting him down. It also makes the lack of detail in Nicholas harder to excuse, since so much of the film depends on our concern for him. Jackman is a reason to watch a scene, not a reason to sit through *The Son*. — Fi1m

## Biography

Florian Zeller is a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter and film director. Born in Paris in 1979, he graduated from Sciences Po and began his career with novels before turning to theatre. His plays, including the family trilogy *The Mother*, *The Father* and *The Son*, have been staged worldwide and translated by Christopher Hampton.

Zeller made his feature directorial debut with the 2020 film adaptation of *The Father*, which he co-wrote with Hampton. The film won Academy and BAFTA Awards for its screenplay. He directed and co-wrote the 2022 screen version of *The Son*, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In 2023 he was awarded France's Legion of Honour, and in 2025 he was elected to the Académie Française.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *The Son* (2022), Fi1m 43, Director, Producer, Screenplay, Theatre Play — [page](https://film.one/film/the-son.md)
- *The Father* (2020), Fi1m 89, Director, Screenplay, Theatre Play — [page](https://film.one/film/the-father.md)

## Complete filmography (15)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Bunker* (2027), Writer, Director, Producer
- *Julie Keeps Quiet* (2024), Executive Producer
- *The Son* (2022), Director, Producer, Screenplay, Theatre Play — Fi1m 43, [page](https://film.one/film/the-son.md)
- *Show of Titles* (2021), Actor
- *Une heure de tranquillité* (2020), Author
- *The Father* (2020), Director, Theatre Play, Screenplay — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/film/the-father.md)
- *The Other Woman* (2018), Screenplay, Theatre Play
- *Florida* (2015), Theatre Play
- *Do Not Disturb* (2014), Theatre Play, Screenplay
- *The Father* (2014), Theatre Play
- *La Vérité* (2011), Theatre Play
- *Château en Suède* (2008), Screenplay
- *Le Manège* (2005), Writer
- *Banquet*, Executive Producer
- *Alone Together*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Florian Zeller, director, at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026)](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-95bdae35fab2.jpg) Florian Zeller, director, at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026) — LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Florian_Zeller-3.jpg/1280px-Florian_Zeller-3.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Florian Zeller-5 at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026)](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-1880a8b36f57.jpg) Florian Zeller-5 at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026) — LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Florian_Zeller-5_at_83rd_Venice_International_Film_Festival_in_Venice%2C_Italy_for_the_film_Bunker.jpg/1280px-Florian_Zeller-5_at_83rd_Venice_International_Film_Festival_in_Venice%2C_Italy_for_the_film_Bunker.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Florian Zeller-5 at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026)](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-e60d809fc7d6.jpg) Florian Zeller-5 at 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy for the film Bunker. (2026) — LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Florian_Zeller-5_at_83rd_Venice_International_Film_Festival_in_Venice%2C_Italy_for_the_film_Bunker_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Florian_Zeller-5_at_83rd_Venice_International_Film_Festival_in_Venice%2C_Italy_for_the_film_Bunker_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Salon du livre 2009 Paris](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-95f1d4c6f57a.jpg) Salon du livre 2009 Paris — Leafar - Raphaël Labbé - www.leafar.eu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Florian_Zeller.jpg/1280px-Florian_Zeller.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Florian Zeller](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-75992a3af8b9.jpg) Florian Zeller — Image via TMDB
- ![portrait de l'écrivain Florian Zeller (2021)](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-929e11c193dd.jpg) portrait de l'écrivain Florian Zeller (2021) — Tricycle18, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Florian_Zeller_2021.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Florian Zeller attends the "Bunker" Screening during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 08, 2026 in Venice, Italy](https://film.one/media/person/21779/gallery-2a7779a9292a.jpg) Florian Zeller attends the "Bunker" Screening during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival at Sala Grande on September 08, 2026 in Venice, Italy — Colleen Sturtevant, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Florian_Zeller_Venice_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Florian_Zeller_Venice_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won

- 2021: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (won), for *The Father*

### Other awards — 7 won, 2 nominated

- Grand prix du théâtre 2024: Grand prix du théâtre (won)
- César Award for Best Foreign Film 2022: César Award for Best Foreign Film (won)
- Knight of the Legion of Honour 2022: Knight of the Legion of Honour (won)
- European Film Award for Best Director 2021: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *The Father*
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2021: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (won), for *The Father*
- prix SACD 2019: prix SACD (won)
- Tony Award for Best Play 2016: Tony Award for Best Play (nominated), for *Le Père*
- Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres 2010: Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (won)
- Prix Interallié 2004: Prix Interallié (won), for *The Fascination of Evil*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/florian-zeller