---
name: "Leos Carax"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/leos-carax"
fi1m_id: "leos-carax"
imdb_id: "nm0136021"
tmdb_id: 27977
wikidata_id: "Q737693"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "22 November 1960"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T23:51:03.947572+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."
---

# Leos Carax

## Identity

Leos Carax

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/leos-carax
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** leos-carax
- **IMDb ID:** nm0136021
- **TMDB ID:** 27977
- **Wikidata ID:** Q737693
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leos_Carax, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q737693, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136021/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/27977

Director. Born 22 November 1960 in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 22 November 1960, Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
- **Also known as:** Léos Carax, Alex Christophe Dupont, 레오스 카락스, 레오 까락스, 레오스 까락스
- **Cannes Film Festival:** 1 Cannes prize (1 won)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leos_Carax, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q737693, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136021/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/27977

## Streaming the US now

- **Pluto TV:** [*Holy Motors*](https://film.one/film/holy-motors.md) (84)

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

## Fi1m on Leos Carax

> Leos Carax lets a film change character with its actors, and the results can be funny and unexpectedly moving. We warmly recommend *Holy Motors*, with reservations about lingering episodes and the smaller freedoms allowed to its women.

In *Holy Motors* (2012), Denis Lavant can be a banker, a beggar or a father, and Leos Carax lets the film change with him. Each character gets a separate episode, with little obligation to behave like the one before. We like Carax most when that freedom produces a surprise worth sitting through, rather than another variation on an idea we have already understood. Here, it usually does.

The early films grew out of his partnership with Lavant and cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier: *Boy Meets Girl* (1984), *Mauvais Sang* (1986) and *Les Amants du Pont-Neuf* (1991). The physical performance and romantic intensity of *Mauvais Sang* remain useful guides to his interests. After a long gap, *Pola X* (1999) brought a more austere tone. The later work keeps changing form, from the separate encounters of *Holy Motors* to *Annette* (2021), an English-language musical made with Sparks.

Nelly Quettier’s editing is crucial to *Holy Motors*: the changes of genre arrive abruptly, yet the next episode often catches our attention before we have finished questioning the last. The pacing within those episodes is less reliable, because Carax sometimes stays after the joke or situation has become clear. We can admire the willingness to try something new and still wish he would move on sooner.

We grinned at the accordion passage, because the noisy collective playing makes watching people do something together a sufficient pleasure. Neil Hannon’s musical contribution allows *Holy Motors* to be openly sad without setting us another puzzle. These moments matter: Carax can make the repeated changes of identity tiring, but here he gives us time to enjoy the people performing them.

His attention is unevenly shared. Édith Scob, Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue make an impression in *Holy Motors*, but none gets Lavant’s freedom to keep changing, and the encounters suffer for it. We are left with a richer sense of his leading man’s experience than of the women around him. Start with this film for Lavant and the music, and allow Carax a few detours that last longer than they should.

## Biography

Leos Carax is a French film director, screenwriter, critic and actor. Born Alex Christophe Dupont on 22 November 1960 in Suresnes, he began making short films in the early 1980s and made his feature debut with *Boy Meets Girl* (1984).

His subsequent films include *Mauvais Sang* (1986), *The Lovers on the Bridge* (1991), *Pola X* (1999), *Holy Motors* (2012) and *Annette* (2021). He won the Best Director prize at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for *Annette*. Carax has frequently collaborated with actor Denis Lavant and appeared in several of his own films, including a credited role in *Holy Motors*.

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

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Holy Motors* (2012), Fi1m 84, as The Sleeper / Limousine (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/holy-motors.md)

## Complete filmography (27)

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

- *An Urban Allegory* (2024), as The Director
- *It's Not Me* (2024), as LC · Director, Writer, Producer
- *Annette* (2021), as The Producer (uncredited) · Director, Lyricist
- *L* (2014), Director of Photography
- *Gradiva* (2014), Director
- *Holy Motors* (2012), as The Sleeper / Limousine (voice) · Director, Writer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/holy-motors.md)
- *20 Little Films* (2012), Director
- *42 One Dream Rush* (2010), Director
- *Hymn to Merde* (2009), Director
- *Tokyo!* (2008), Director, Writer
- *I Did Not Die* (2008), as Moitié d'archange
- *Mister Lonely* (2008), as Renard
- *977* (2006), as technician
- *My Last Minute* (2006), as Man · Director, Writer
- *Process* (2004), as A doctor
- *Pierre or, The Ambiguities* (2001), series, Writer, Director, Creator
- *Pola X* (1999), Director, Screenplay
- *The House* (1997), Actor
- *Sans Titre* (1997), Screenplay, Director
- *The Lovers on the Bridge* (1991), as Prisoner · Director, Writer
- *Le Pont-Neuf des amants* (1991), Actor
- *King Lear* (1988), as Edgar
- *Mauvais Sang* (1986), as Neighborhood Voyeur (uncredited) · Director, Writer
- *Boy Meets Girl* (1984), Director, Writer
- *Strangulation Blues* (1980), Director, Writer
- *Untitled Leos Carax Project*, Director
- *Lily May B*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-2aefbacae233.jpg) Leos Carax — Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Leos_Carax_Cannes_2012.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-a60fe9a736db.jpg) Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax — Canal22, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Annette_Cannes_01.jpg/1280px-Annette_Cannes_01.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-096011db6793.jpg) Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax — Canal22, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Annette_Cannes_02.jpg/1280px-Annette_Cannes_02.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-47c7731bf1d1.jpg) Cannes Film Festival 2021. Cast of the film Annette, directed by Leos Carax — Canal22, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Annette_Cannes_03.jpg/1280px-Annette_Cannes_03.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-777526fd9ff0.jpg) Leos Carax — Image via TMDB
- ![Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-c94e1005b1ff.jpg) Leos Carax — Image via TMDB
- ![Leos Carax](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-fd7633f5380a.jpg) Leos Carax — Image via TMDB
- ![leos carax at the student film festival tel aviv (2022)](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-e2e39f2c09ce.jpg) leos carax at the student film festival tel aviv (2022) — Adam4896, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Carax.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Leos Carax durant sa masterclass à la Cinémathèque française en mars 2023.](https://film.one/media/person/120180/gallery-8dc492661b30.jpg) Leos Carax durant sa masterclass à la Cinémathèque française en mars 2023. — ManoSolo13241324, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Leos_Carax_2023.jpg/1280px-Leos_Carax_2023.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### BAFTA Film Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1993: Best Film Not in the English Language (nominated), for *Les Amants du Pont-Neuf*

### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won

- 2022: Cannes Best Director Award (won), for *Annette*

### Other awards — 4 won, 6 nominated

- César Award for Best Director 2022: César Award for Best Director (won), for *Annette*
- César Award for Best Original Screenplay 2022: César Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominated), for *Annette*
- Lumière Award for Best Director 2022: Lumière Award for Best Director (won), for *Annette*
- César Award for Best Director 2013: César Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Holy Motors*
- César Award for Best Film 2013: César Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Holy Motors*
- César Award for Best Original Screenplay 2013: César Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominated), for *Holy Motors*
- Sitges Film Festival Best Director award 2012: Sitges Film Festival Best Director award (won), for *Holy Motors*
- European Film Award for Best Film 1992: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Les Amants du Pont-Neuf*
- Louis Delluc Prize 1986: Louis Delluc Prize (won), for *Mauvais sang*
- César Award for Best First Film 1985: César Award for Best First Film (nominated), for *Boy Meets Girl*

*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/leos-carax