05/01/2007

Unifrance, the agency responsible for promoting French films abroad, has chosen young actress Mélanie Laurent to represent French cinema at the 2007 Shooting Stars event organised by European Film Promotion at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival (February 8-18).

This is yet another distinction for the 23 year-old actress, whose achievements to date include the 2006 Romy Schneider Award for her lead role in Philippe Lioret’s Don’t Worry, I’m Fine [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), which drew 886,000 filmgoers last autumn.

Born in Paris in 1983, Laurent made her big screen debut in 1999 alongside Gérard Depardieu and Carole Bouquet in Frédéric Auburtin’s The Bridge. This was followed up by her sparkling performance in Michel Blanc’s Summer Things (2002).

Laurent has starred in two features by Rodolphe Marconi (2001’s This Is My Body and 2004’s Le dernier jour), as well as in Olias Barco’s Snowboarder and Hong Kong film Rice Rhapsody by Kenneth Bi.

Her most recent films include Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2005) and Rachid Bouchareb’s Days of Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile] and Dikkenek by Belgian director Oliver Van Hoofstad (both in 2006).

Unanimously acclaimed by critics for her performance in Don’t Worry, I’m Fine, the actress has had a rapid rise to fame with her role last summer in Alessandro Capone’s The First Voice, featuring Isabelle Huppert, Greta Scacchi and Olivier Gourmet, before starring in the autumn alongside Albert Dupontel, Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, François Cluzet, Fabrice Luchini and Karin Viard in Paris by Cédric Klapisch (see news).

This year is expected to be just as prosperous. The actress will first star in La Chambre des morts (lit. “Room of the Dead”) by Alfred Lot, featuring Eric Caravaca and Jérémie Renier (see news), and in Jean-Paul Salomé’s Les Femmes de l'ombre (lit. “Undercover Women”) in the spring, a film whose cast includes Sophie Marceau, Laura Smet and Julie Depardieu (see article).

(Translated from French)