Laurent Cantet

Laurent Cantet (; 11 April 1961 – 25 April 2024) was a French director, cinematographer and screenwriter. His film Entre les murs (The Class) won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

Biography Laurent Cantet was born in 1961 in the town of Melle, Deux-Sèvres in western France; his parents were schoolteachers. He went to university in Marseille to study photography, and then entered the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris where he graduated in 1986. His peers at IDHEC included Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand and Robin Campillo. After initially working in television, he became assistant director to Marcel Ophuls for Veillées d'armes (1994), a documentary about the siege of Sarajevo. He went on to make some short films, often in collaboration with colleagues from film school. In 1998 Cantet was one of several young directors invited to make films for the European TV company Arte to mark the forthcoming year 2000, and he completed the mid-length film Les Sanguinaires (1999), about a group of friends who travel to an uninhabited island to escape the millennial celebrations.

His first feature film, with a screenplay written jointly with Gilles Marchand, was Ressources humaines (Human Resources, 1999) about a management trainee working in his father's factory. This achieved both critical and popular success, and it won two César Awards. His next film L'Emploi du temps (Time Out, 2001) continued his interest in employment issues, drawing upon a real-life case about a professional man who concealed his redundancy from his family. The screenplay was written jointly with Robin Campillo, who also worked on several of Cantet's later films. Social and political issues took on a more international perspective in Vers le sud (Heading South, 2005) about sexual tourism in Haiti. In Entre les murs (The Class, 2008) Cantet made a film which blended fiction and documentary exploring the daily life of a class of students in a Parisian school. The cast was composed entirely of non-professionals, including the teacher on whose book the film was based. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival. Subsequent projects have taken Cantet to Canada for Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (2012) and to Havana for Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca, 2014), working in English and Spanish respectively.

This method was used by Cantet for Entre les murs, and he returned to it in L'Atelier (The Workshop, 2017) in which he worked with a group of young people from La Ciotat on the Mediterranean coast, exploring their present-day problems in a former shipbuilding town which had been radically transformed since its industrial past. Their fictional project in the film shows them collaborating in a workshop to write a novel about their town and drawing on their own experiences to enrich it, mirroring aspects of Cantet's own method in making the film.

Alongside Pascale Ferran and Cédric Klapisch, in 2015 he founded LaCinetek, a streaming platform with films chosen by filmmakers from all around the world.

In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Cantet signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.

Cantet died in Paris on 25 April 2024, at the age of 63. He had been in preparation to direct the new film Enzo, which he cowrote with Campillo; Campillo took over direction on the film, which was released in 2025.

Filmography Short film Year TitleDirectorWriter Notes 1994 Tous à la manif 1995 Jeux de plage 2012 La FuenteSegment of 7 días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)

Feature film Year TitleDirectorWriterNotes 1990 Un été à Beyrouth Documentary film 1997 Les SanguinairesTelefilm 1999 Ressources humaines (Human Resources) 2001 L'Emploi du temps (Time Out) 2005 Vers le sud (Heading South) 2008 Entre les murs (The Class) 2012 Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang 2014 Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca) 2017 L'Atelier (The Workshop) 2021 Arthur Rambo 2025 EnzoOriginally intended to be directed by Cantet; taken over by Robin Campillo following Cantet's death, although it still credits Cantet as an honorary director.

Other Year Title Role Notes 1987 L'Étendu Cinematographer Short film 1994 Veillées d'armes : histoire du journalisme en temps de guerre Assistant director Documentary film; 1994 Joyeux Noël Cinematographer Short film 1998 Cette nuit Cinematographer

Accolades The 2001 film L'Emploi du temps was placed at 99 on Slant Magazine best films of the 2000s, number 9 of The Guardian's Best Films of the Noughties, and number 11 at The A.V. Club's top 50 films of the 2000s (decade).

In 2015 Cantet received the Volta Career Achievement Award at the Dublin International Film Festival.

Year Title Award/Nomination 1999 Ressources humaines (Human Resources)7 d'Or for Best ScreenwritingAmiens International Film Festival – Prize of the City of AmiensAmiens International Film Festival – OCIC AwardBuenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema – Best FilmBuenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema – People's Choice AwardCésar Award for Best First Feature FilmEuropean Film Award for European Discovery of the YearFrench Syndicate of Cinema Critics – Best First French FilmLouis Delluc Prize for Best First FilmSan Sebastián International Film Festival – Best New DirectorSeattle International Film Festival – New Director's Showcase AwardThessaloniki International Film Festival – Best ScreenplayTorino Film Festival – Best First Feature FilmTorino Film Festival – Cipputi AwardNominated—César Award for Best Original Screenplay or AdaptationNominated—Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film 2001 L'Emploi du temps (Time Out)Venice Film Festival – Don Quixote AwardVienna International Film Festival – FIPRESCI PrizeNominated—Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2nd place)Nominated—European Film Award for Best ScreenwriterNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best International FilmNominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film (3rd place)Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film (runner-up) 2005 Vers le sud (Heading South)Venice Film Festival – CinemAvvenire AwardNominated—Venice Film Festival – Golden Lion 2008 Entre les murs (The Class)Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences Award for Best Foreign FilmCannes Film Festival – Palme d'OrCésar Award for Best AdaptationIndependent Spirit Award for Best International FilmLumière Award for Best FilmLumière World Audience AwardMunich Film Festival – One Future PrizeSilver Condor Award for Best Foreign FilmNominated—Academy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmNominated—Bodil Award for Best Non-American FilmNominated—César Award for Best FilmNominated—César Award for Best DirectorNominated—David di Donatello for Best European FilmNominated—European Film Award for Best DirectorNominated—European Film Award for Best FilmNominated—Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Foreign Language FilmGlobes de Cristal Award for Best FilmNominated—Gopo Award for Best European FilmNominated—Goya Award for Best European FilmNominated—Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2nd place)Nominated—Lumière Award for Best DirectorNominated—Lumière Award for Best ScreenplayNominated—Nastro d'Argento for Best European DirectorNominated—Prix Jacques Prévert du Scénario for Best AdaptationNominated—Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2012 7 días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)Nominated—Cannes Film Festival – Prix Un certain regard 2012 Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl GangNominated—San Sebastián International Film Festival – Golden Shell 2014 Retour à Ithaque (Return to Ithaca)Venice Film Festival – Venice Days Award