Rebecca
Zlotowski
Scriptwriter and director Rebecca Zlotowski was born in Paris in 1980.
A former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and a graduate in French Language and Literature, she joined the scriptwriting department of the Paris film school La Fémis in 2003. In 2011, she directed her first full-length feature, Belle Epine under the guidance of Lodge Kerrigan, her tutor at the time. The film, featuring Léa Seydoux in the lead role, grew out of her final-year project and was presented at the 49th Semaine de la Critique competition in Cannes. It won two prizes and earned Léa Seydoux a nomination for a César in the “Most Promising Actress” category in 2011.
In 2013, Rebecca again directed Léa Seydoux, this time in Grand Central, which made the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival in the “Un Certain Regard” category. The film—a dramatic love triangle set against an environment of radioactive contamination—is striking by its modernity. Often reminiscent of 1960s French cinema and replete with cinematic references, from Alain Resnais to Jacques Becker, the oeuvre explores carnal desire and the immediacy, intensity and sensuality at the core of a disturbing social situation in the grey are between fiction and documentary.
In addition to her talents as a director she is also an accomplished scriptwriter with 11 screenplays to her name, including Jimmy Riviére, the first full-length feature from Teddy Lussi Modeste. She also worked with Jean-Claude Brisseau on La Légende de la bande à Bonnot.