French director Claire Denis will receive the Carrosse d’Or (also known as the Golden Coach) handed out by the French Directors’ Association (SRF) at the opening ceremony of the 58th Directors’ Fortnight (set to unspool from 13-23 May as an integral part of the 79th Cannes Film Festival).

Having taken part in the Fortnight with Let the Sun Shine In in 2017, Claire Denis has been in the Cannes competition twice, with Chocolat (her feature debut) in 1988 and with Stars at Noon in 2022 (which picked up the Grand Prix). She has also partaken in the Cannes Official Selection showcase several times – in Un Certain Regard in 1994 with I Can’t Sleep and in 2013 with Bastards, as well as out of competition in 2001 with Trouble Every Day. She has also been selected for the Venice competition three times (No Fear, No Die in 1990, The Intruder in 2004 and White Material in 2009) and won the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlin in 2022 for Both Sides of the Blade. Her list of awards and achievements is further embellished, among others, by the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 1996 for Nénette and Boni and by two appearances in competition at San Sebastián (in 2018 with High Life and in 2025 with The Fence, which comes out in French theatres on 8 April).

Intended to reward a filmmaker chosen for the pioneering qualities of their films, their boldness, and the rigour of their direction and production, the Carrosse d’Or (which was first handed out in 2002) has, in the past, been awarded to Jacques Rozier, Clint Eastwood, Nanni Moretti, Ousmane Sembene, David Cronenberg, Alain Cavalier, Jim Jarmusch, Naomi Kawase, Agnès Varda, Jafar Panahi, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Jia Zhangke, Aki Kaurismäki, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter, Frederick Wiseman, Kelly Reichardt, Souleymane Cissé, Andrea Arnold and Todd Haynes.