François Bégaudeau

François Bégaudeau (; born 27 April 1971) is a French novelist and essayist. He is best known for co-writing and starring in The Class, a film based on his 2006 semi-autobiographical novel Entre les murs. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009.

Early life He was born in Luçon, Vendée, France and was a member of the 1990s punk rock group Zabriskie Point. After receiving his degree in Literature, he taught high school in Dreux and in an inner city middle school in Paris.

Career Bégaudeau published his first novel, Jouer juste in 2003. In 2005, he published Dans la diagonale and Un démocrate, Mick Jagger 1960-1969, a fictionalized account of the life of Mick Jagger. The film also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009, though it ultimately lost to Japan's Departures. The English-language version of Entre les murs was published in April 2009 by Seven Stories Press under the title The Class.

Works Jouer juste, Éditions Verticales, 2003 Dans la diagonale, Éditions Verticales, 2005 Un démocrate : Mick Jagger 1960-1969, Naïve Records, 2005 Entre les murs, Éditions Verticales, 2006 Collaboration for Débuter dans l'enseignement : Témoignages d'enseignants, conseils d'experts, ESF, 2006 Collaboration for Devenirs du roman, Naïve Records, 2007 Collaboration for Une année en France : Réferendum/banlieues/CPE, Gallimard, 2007 Fin de l'histoire, Éditions Verticales, 2007 Vers la Douceur, Éditions Verticales, 2009 Histoire de ta bêtise, Éditions Fayard/Pauvert, 2019 Notre Joie, Éditions Fayard/Pauvert, 2021 L'Amour, Éditions Verticales, 2023