Film and stage actress Irène Jacob gained worldwide renown in 1991, when she won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance in Krysztof Kielślowski’s film The Double Life of Veronique. After making her debut under director Louis Malle in Au revoir les enfants, she played one role after another, carrying out an international career with Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders, Theo Angelopoulos, Agnieszka Holland, Paul Auster, Jonathan Nossiter, Hugh Hudson, and Kielślowski himself in Three Colours: Red. In France, she worked with directors Nadine Trintignant, Claude Lelouch, Serge Le Péron, Pascal Thomas, Riad Sattouf, and Jacques Deray in Letter from an Unknown Woman. Jacob has also acted in numerous works for the stage, the latest being Thomas Ostermeier’s Returning to Reims, based on the book by Didier Eribon. A passionate and erudite cinephile, she advocates for open and universal access to culture, connected to living history and our present day. In September 2021, following the death of Bertrand Tavernier in March of that year, she was appointed to be the president of the Lumière Institute.
Film and stage actress Irène Jacob gained worldwide renown in 1991, when she won the Best Actress award at Cannes for her performance in Krysztof Kielślowski’s film The Double Life of Veronique. After making her debut under director Louis Malle in Au revoir les enfants, she played one role after another, carrying out an international career with Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders, Theo Angelopoulos, Agnieszka Holland, Paul Auster, Jonathan Nossiter, Hugh Hudson, and Kielślowski himself in Three Colours: Red. In France, she worked with directors Nadine Trintignant, Claude Lelouch, Serge Le Péron, Pascal Thomas, Riad Sattouf, and Jacques Deray in Letter from an Unknown Woman. Jacob has also acted in numerous works for the stage, the latest being Thomas Ostermeier’s Returning to Reims, based on the book by Didier Eribon. A passionate and erudite cinephile, she advocates for open and universal access to culture, connected to living history and our present day. In September 2021, following the death of Bertrand Tavernier in March of that year, she was appointed to be the president of the Lumière Institute.
