Nicolas Philibert

Directing·Jan 10, 1951·Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France

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Nicolas Philibert (French: [filibɛʁ]; born 10 January 1951) is a French documentary filmmaker. He has directed films since 1978. At the 73rd Berlinale (2023), he receives the Golden Bear for his film "On the Adamant". Philibert's father was a film lecturer and he attended his talks in his youth. This encouraged him to embark on a film career. He started this with René Allio (1970), as a trainee on Les Camisards as an assistant on Rude Journée pour la reine (1973) and assistant-director on Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma sœur et mon frère... (1975). In 1978 he co-directed with Gérard Mordillat a feature documentary His Master's Voice, in which a dozen bosses of big industrial groups discuss power, leadership, hierarchies and the role of unions. Between 1985 and 1987, he made several films about mountains and adventure for TV, then turned to making feature-length documentaries for theatrical distribution: La Ville Louvre (1990), Le Pays des sourds (1992), Un animal, des animaux (1995), La Moindre des choses (1996) - at the psychiatric clinic of La Borde, as well as an experimental film with the pupils of the theatre school Théâtre national de Strasbourg, Qui sait? (1998). In 2001, Nicolas Philibert made Être et avoir, about daily life in a single class school on a small village in the Auvergne. It won the Prix Louis Delluc 2002, and became a box office and critical success in France and internationally. The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. With Retour en Normandie (2007), he revisited the traces of a previous films, made thirty years earlier by René Allio, with local peasants playing the lead roles. With Nénette (2010), made at the Ménagerie du Jardin des plantes in Paris, he produced an intimated portrait of the most famous of its inhabitants a female orang-utang, Nénette, held in captivity for 36 years. La Maison de la radio (2013), takes us into the heart of the French Radio headquarters in Paris, finding out who inhabits the place and discovering the mysteries of its long corridors. Over the last fifteen years there have been more than 120 retrospectives or 'homages' to Philibert organised internationally including the British Film Institute (London) and the Museum of Modern Art (New York). He was one of the directors invited to nominate his favourite films in the British Film Institute's 2012 poll. He explains, in French, his motivations, his influences (including Agnés Varda) and the history of his career as a documentary film maker, especially the 'impermeable' frontiers between documentary and drama in an interview recorded in April 2012.

Film	Credit
The Typewriter and Other Headaches2024 · Director	Director
At Averroes & Rosa Parks2024 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
On the Adamant2023 · Director, Writer, Director of Photography	Director, Writer, Director of Photography
Nicolas Philibert, Hasard et Nécessité2020 · Actor	Actor
NNénette's Birthday2020 · Director	Director
Each and Every Moment2018 · Writer, Director, Director of Photography	Writer, Director, Director of Photography
YY'a quelqu'un?2018 · Director	Director
La Maison de la Radio2013 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
France Culture au Festival d'Avignon: 'Forcenés'2013 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
JJoël comme Collado2013 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
Joseph Morder filme le défilé du Premier Mai2012 · Actor	Actor
LLa nuit du court 20112011 · Director	Director
Nénette2010 · Director, Writer, Director of Photography	Director, Writer, Director of Photography
TThe Screening2010 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
Night Falls on the Menagerie2010 · Writer, Director of Photography, Director	Writer, Director of Photography, Director
NNénette, orang-outan de Bornéo2009 · Writer, Director, Director of Photography	Writer, Director, Director of Photography
Back to Normandy2007 · Himself, Director	Himself, Director
Not Like Before2005 · Self	Self
TThe Invisible2002 · Director, Director of Photography	Director, Director of Photography
To Be and to Have2002 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
WWhat Drives the Taxidermist2002 · Director, Writer, Director of Photography	Director, Writer, Director of Photography
EEmmanuelle Laborit, Sign Shards2002 · Director	Director
Who Knows?1999 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Ouvertures faciles1999 · Actor	Actor
Every Little Thing1997 · Director, Writer, Director of Photography	Director, Writer, Director of Photography
PPour Catherine1995 · Director	Director
Animals and More Animals1994 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
MMetamorphosis of a Building1994 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
IIn the Skin of a Badger1994 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
FFamily Portraits1994 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
In the Land of the Deaf1992 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
PPatrons 78-911991 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Louvre City1990 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Go Ahead, Baby!1988 · Director	Director
Baquet's Comeback1988 · Director	Director
Trilogy for One Man1987 · Director	Director
The Measure of the Feat1987 · Director	Director
NNo Problem1986 · Director	Director
The North Face of the Camembert1985 · Director	Director
Christophe1985 · Director	Director
His Master's Voice1978 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The French Calvinists1972 · Actor	Actor