Valérie Donzelli

Valérie Donzelli, a French actress, filmmaker and screenwriter was born on 2nd March 1973 in Épinal, France. She spent her early years in Créteil, near Paris, then moved to Lille with her family when she was 14 and finally returned to Paris at 19. Prior to her career in cinema, Donzelli studied architecture and dabbled in theatre at the municipal conservatory of the 10th arrondissement of Paris. For a time, she worked at a bakery in Paris where she met Jérémie Elkaïm, her life and work partner. They had two children together and their oldest, Gabriel, inspired the movie Declaration of War. Though they are now separated, they maintain a close relationship.

Donzelli's acting career began with Martha Martha in 2001 but she gained popularity among the French audience through the TV show Clara Sheller in 2005. Her debut film, The Queen of Hearts where she was also the lead actress, garnered unexpected success, and was presented at Locarno International Film Festival. In 2011, she directed her second full-length feature film Declaration of War which was met with universal acclaim from both audience and critics alike. This movie, a collaborative project with Jérémie Elkaïm, was presented at the 2011 Cannes Festival. Following this, Donzelli directed Hand in Hand in 2012. She holds a belief that making films as women is always a politic and engaged gesture, and has great admiration for Agnès Varda for her work and pioneering role as a female filmmaker in French Cinema. Her 2015 film Marguerite & Julien was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The subsequent year, she was the president of the jury of the Critics' Week section at the Cannes Film Festival.