WRITER/DIRECTOR JACQUES AUDIARD
RECIPIENT OF THE TAFFF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2024.

During the 28 th Opening Night Ceremony of The American French film festival, writer/director Jacques Audiard, whose film Emilia Pérez was the Festival’s Opening Night curtain raiser, accepted the TAFFF Achievement Award from FACF President and Sacem CEO Cecile Rap-Veber and FACF board member and fellow director Michael Mann.
TAFFF Achievement Award was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund in 2024 to honor a filmmaker whose work has been celebrated in both France and the United States.

“Jacques Audiard’s body of work – including A Prophet and Rust and Bone – is so singular and innovative in how it profoundly and sensorially immerses us within his people and their worlds. Tonight, you’ll experience his tour de force, Emilia Pérez. It is more than a good or a great film. It is a rare event; a contemporary masterpiece.”, said the director of Heat and Ferrari.

“I am honored and surprised to be the first recipient of this prize and would like to thank the festival and the Franco-American Cultural Fund for this recognition”, said Jacques Audiard.

Jacques Audiard was born in Paris in 1952. Over the course of his 30-year career, he has won both the César Award for Best Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language twice: in 2005 for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and in 2010 for A Prophete, which also won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. His film Rust and Bone competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the BFI London Film Festival Award for Best Film. His film Dheepan won the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. He has since directed three films: The Sisters Brothers, for which he won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival; Paris, 13 th District which was in competition at Festival de Cannes; and Emilia Pérez, a double award with the Jury Prize and the Best Actress Award for the four actresses at the Cannes 2024 Film Festival, and France’s official selection for Oscar consideration. In the audience at the presentation of The Franco-American Cultural Fund Achievement Award to Mr. Audiard were Emilia Pérez cast members Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, and Karla Sofía Gascón, as well as the film’s composers -Camille- and Clément Ducol, and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.