---
name: "Mathieu Kassovitz"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/mathieu-kassovitz"
fi1m_id: "mathieu-kassovitz"
imdb_id: "nm0440913"
tmdb_id: 2406
wikidata_id: "Q491766"
roles: ["Actor","Director"]
born: "3 August 1967"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 8
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 7
updated: "2026-10-07T17:33:37.428626+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."
---

# Mathieu Kassovitz

## Identity

Mathieu Kassovitz

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/mathieu-kassovitz
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** mathieu-kassovitz
- **IMDb ID:** nm0440913
- **TMDB ID:** 2406
- **Wikidata ID:** Q491766
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_Kassovitz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q491766, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440913/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2406

Actor and director. Born 3 August 1967 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor, Director
- **Born:** 3 August 1967, Paris, Ile-de-France, France
- **Active:** 1995–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 8: 7 acting, 1 directing
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as actor, over 7 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 82 (2), 2000s 81 (2), 2010s 76 (3), 2020s 70 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 69 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 4 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 2 of 5 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 5, Action 2, History 2, Thriller 2, Adventure 1, Comedy 1
- **Screen time:** 11 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $621m across 5 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_Kassovitz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q491766, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440913/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2406

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Munich*](https://film.one/film/munich.md) (80), [*Haywire*](https://film.one/film/haywire.md) (74)
- **Apple TV:** [*The Bureau*](https://film.one/tv/the-bureau.md) (88)

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

## Fi1m on Mathieu Kassovitz

> Mathieu Kassovitz is a useful, unshowy actor who is happiest at the edge of someone else's frame, and a director who made one film, *La Haine*, that most of his acting and nearly all of his later directing has not come near.

On screen Mathieu Kassovitz is usually the man at the edge of the picture, watching. In *Amélie* (2001) he is Nino Quincampoix, the shy young man Audrey Tautou's heroine circles for most of the film; in *Munich* (2005) he is Robert, one of the men around Eric Bana. Neither film belongs to him and he does not try to take it. He plays ordinary, unsure young men under some sort of pressure, and he plays them without asking us to notice.

The odd thing about his acting is that it is the smaller half of him. He grew up in his father's films and worked as an assistant director, made shorts from 1990 and a first feature, *Métisse*, in 1993. Then in 1995 he wrote, directed and co-edited *La Haine*, and everything since has been measured against it. He has kept the two jobs running side by side: acting in *The Fifth Element* (1997), *Amélie* and *Munich*, and later *The Wolf's Call* (2019) and the television series *The Bureau*, while directing thrillers, among them *The Crimson Rivers* (2000), *Gothika* (2003) and *Babylon A.D.* (2008).

*La Haine* is the reason to care. Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Saïd Taghmaoui wander a Paris suburb through the day after a police beating, and Kassovitz lets them be funny and tiresome as well as angry, which is why we mind what happens to them. He cut it with Scott Stevenson so the aimlessness never goes slack, and the hip-hop from Assassin keeps it restless. We laughed far more than we expected to at three young men with nothing to do, and came out angrier than we went in, because the film had made us like them first and then reminded us what was waiting for them. He shows off, and a conversation can feel arranged to reach a useful line, but the friendship survives the flourishes.

The Hollywood directing did not go as well. *Gothika* and *Babylon A.D.* were met with mixed or worse notices and read, fairly, as work for hire. Kassovitz has said "I am not an actor-director. I am a director-actor," and has called acting mostly a matter of being a puppet. That is unkind to his own acting, which is good at exactly that: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Steven Spielberg both needed a face that would not compete with the film, and he gave them one. But it is honest about where his attention goes. When we reviewed *Munich* and *Amélie*, we wrote about Bana and Tautou. He was not there to be written about.

If you want him as an actor, *Amélie* is the place; he is a generous partner to Tautou and asks nothing for himself. If you want to know what he is for, watch the film he made in 1995, then notice how little of what followed, in either job, looks like it.

## Biography

Mathieu Kassovitz is a French actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. Born on 3 August 1967 in Paris, he began his career as an actor in the early 1990s. He is known for roles including Nino Quincampoix in *Amélie* (2001), Robert in *Munich* (2005) and Studer in *Haywire* (2011).

As a director, Kassovitz is best known for *La Haine* (1995), for which he won César Awards for Best Film and Best Editing, as well as the Best Director prize at Cannes. Other directorial credits include *The Crimson Rivers* (2000), *Gothika* (2003) and *Babylon A.D.* (2008). He has also appeared in *The Fifth Element* (1997), *Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra* (2002) and *Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets* (2017).

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

## On Fi1m (8)

### Performed in (7) — the average rests on these

- *De Gaulle: Résistance* (2026), Fi1m 70, as Darlan — [page](https://film.one/film/de-gaulle-resistance.md)
- *War and Peace* (2016), Fi1m 65, as Napoleon Bonaparte — [page](https://film.one/tv/war-and-peace.md)
- *The Bureau* (2015), Fi1m 88, as Guillaume Debailly — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-bureau.md)
- *Haywire* (2011), Fi1m 74, as Studer — [page](https://film.one/film/haywire.md)
- *Munich* (2005), Fi1m 80, as Robert — [page](https://film.one/film/munich.md)
- *Amélie* (2001), Fi1m 82, as Nino Quincampoix — [page](https://film.one/film/amelie.md)
- *The Fifth Element* (1997), Fi1m 73, as Mugger — [page](https://film.one/film/the-fifth-element.md)

### Directed (1)

- *La Haine* (1995), Fi1m 90, as Young Skin — [page](https://film.one/film/la-haine.md)

## Complete filmography (88)

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

- *De Gaulle: Résistance* (2026), as Darlan — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/de-gaulle-resistance.md)
- *La Haine : jusqu'ici rien n'a changé* (2025), Creator, Idea, Author, Art Direction, Stage Director
- *Star Wars: Skeleton Crew* (2024), series, as General Strix
- *Apocalypse: D-Day* (2024), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Brothers* (2024), as Patrice (adulte)
- *Cannabis : Une enquête de Mathieu Kassovitz et Antoine Robin* (2024), Author
- *Rachel's Game* (2024), as Sam Zimmerman
- *Furies* (2024), series, as Driss
- *Visions* (2023), as Guillaume
- *Apocalypse: The Fall of Hitler* (2023), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *The Astronaut* (2023), as Alexandre Ribbot
- *Amélie: The Real Story* (2023), as Nino (archive footage)
- *The Accusation* (2021), as Prof. Adam Wizman
- *Him* (2021), as Friend
- *Apocalypse: Hitler Takes on the East* (2021), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Apocalypse: Hitler Takes on the West* (2021), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Short cuts : La Haine* (2021), Original Film Writer
- *Fake News* (2021), as Guillaume Kekchoz
- *Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin* (2021), as Narrator (voice)
- *Simply Black* (2020), as Mathieu Kassovitz
- *Apocalypse: War of Worlds (1945-1991)* (2019), series, as Narrator (French) (voice)
- *Street Flow* (2019), as Dominique
- *The Wolf's Call* (2019), as Alfost
- *Apocalypse: Never-Ending War (1918-1926)* (2018), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Fan Club* (2018), as Narrateur
- *Apocalypse - La paix impossible (1918-1926)* (2018), Actor
- *Calls* (2017), series, as Franck
- *Sparring* (2017), as Steve Landry
- *Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets* (2017), as Hawker
- *Happy End* (2017), as Thomas Laurent
- *Two Snails Set Off* (2017), as (voice)
- *Ladies* (2017), as Clovis
- *Gang of the Caribbean* (2016), as The bar owner
- *Apocalypse: Verdun* (2016), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *War and Peace* (2016), series, as Napoleon Bonaparte — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/war-and-peace.md)
- *Apocalypse: Stalin* (2015), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *The Bureau* (2015), series, as Guillaume Debailly — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-bureau.md)
- *Nobody from Nowhere* (2014), as Sébastien Nicolas / Henri de Montalte
- *Wild Life* (2014), as Philippe Fournier (Paco)
- *Apocalypse: World War I* (2014), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Angélique* (2013), as Nicolas / Calembredaine
- *The Lookout* (2012), as Vincent Kaminski
- *Another Woman's Life* (2012), as Paul Speranski
- *Rebellion* (2011), as Philippe Legorjus · Screenplay, Director, Editor, Producer
- *Haywire* (2011), as Studer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/haywire.md)
- *Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler* (2011), series, as Narrator (voice)
- *Platane* (2011), series, as Secret Service Agent
- *Apocalypse: The Second World War* (2009), series, as Narrateur
- *Louise-Michel* (2008), as Le propriétaire de la ferme
- *Babylon A.D.* (2008), Screenplay, Director
- *Johnny Mad Dog* (2008), Producer
- *Two Worlds* (2007), Producer
- *Cinema 16: European Short Films (U.S. Edition)* (2007), Director
- *Hunting Down the Nazis* (2007), as Narrator (voice)
- *Munich* (2005), as Robert — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/munich.md)
- *Nèg maron* (2005), Producer
- *Gothika* (2003), Director
- *Kourtrajmé Vol 1* (2003), as Mathieu
- *Amen.* (2002), as Riccardo Fontana
- *Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra* (2002), as Banquet physiognomist
- *Birthday Girl* (2001), as Yuri
- *Amélie* (2001), as Nino Quincampoix — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/amelie.md)
- *Inside the Making of - Amélie* (2001), as Nino Quincampoix
- *Tarubi, l'arabe strait 2* (2001), as Le mec dans la voiture
- *The Crimson Rivers* (2000), Director, Screenplay
- *Jakob the Liar* (1999), as Herschel
- *Pleasure (And Its Little Inconveniences)* (1998), as Roland
- *The Fifth Element* (1997), as Mugger — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/the-fifth-element.md)
- *Assassin(s)* (1997), as Max · Director, Writer, Editor
- *News from the Good Lord* (1996), Actor
- *A Self-Made Hero* (1996), as Albert Dehousse
- *My Man* (1996), as 1st client · Thanks
- *La Haine* (1995), as Young Skin · Director, Editor, Screenplay — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/la-haine.md)
- *The City of Lost Children* (1995), as Man on the Street (uncredited) — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children.md)
- *3000 scénarios contre un virus* (1995), series, Actor
- *See How They Fall* (1994), as Johnny
- *Putain de porte* (1994), Actor
- *Elle voulait faire quelque chose* (1994), Actor
- *Avant... mais après* (1994), as Vincent
- *Métisse* (1993), as Felix · Director, Writer
- *White Nightmare* (1992), Director, Writer
- *Assassins...* (1992), as Max · Director, Writer
- *Touch and Die* (1991), as Piaz
- *Fierrot le pou* (1990), Writer, Director
- *Next Year If All Goes Well* (1981), as le petit garcon
- *Make Room for Tomorrow* (1979), as Mathias Oppenheim
- *The Big War*, Director, Writer
- *The Way of the Wind*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Mathieu Kassovitz](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-d9ccc3cecdc0.jpg) Mathieu Kassovitz — Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Mathieu_Kassovitz_Cannes_2017.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- !["Motherland" front](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-f7dbca6279a7.jpg) "Motherland" front — Arseny Khakhalin, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/%22Motherland%22_front_-_panoramio.jpg/1280px-%22Motherland%22_front_-_panoramio.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-6026e2f41ff2.jpg) Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011) — Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_1.jpg/1280px-L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-5d25c7543e0c.jpg) Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011) — Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_2.jpg/1280px-L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-4b0cb921a361.jpg) Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011) — Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_3.jpg/1280px-L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_3.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/9448/gallery-6d33dc06c9ae.jpg) Mathieu Kassovitz, french director, during the preview of the movie L'Ordre et la Morale at the movie theater UGC Cité Ciné SQY in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, Fr (2011) — Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_4.jpg/1280px-L_Ordre_et_la_Morale_Mathieu_Kassovitz_4.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 3 won, 2 nominated

- European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director 2001: European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director (nominated), for *The Crimson Rivers*
- Jameson People's Choice Award for Best Actor 2001: Jameson People's Choice Award for Best Actor (nominated), for *Amélie*
- Lumière Award for Best Director 1996: Lumière Award for Best Director (won), for *La Haine*
- Lumière Award for Best Film 1996: Lumière Award for Best Film (won), for *La Haine*
- Young European Film of the Year 1995: Young European Film of the Year (won), for *La Haine*

*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/mathieu-kassovitz