Cédric Jimenez’s Cinema Lesson
Director & screenwriter
Cédric Jimenez directed his first feature film in 2012, Paris Under Watch, centered around a couple of terrorists played by Mélanie Doutey and Olivier Barthélémy. Two years later, he surrounded himself with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche to shoot The Connection, in which a judge goes on a solo crusade against a Marseille mafia figure, before directing The Man with the Iron Heart in 2017. Inspired by true events, the film relates the rise of Reinhard Heydrich, a disgraced soldier who became Himmler’s right-hand man and head of the Gestapo.
Cédric Jimenez then returned to his favorite genre, thriller, with The Stronghold, about a group of Anti-Crime Unit police who cross the legal line in the rough northern districts of Marseille. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2021 and won the High School Students César.
Cédric Jimenez came back again at Cannes in 2022 to present his new film, November, a dive into the heart of Anti-Terrorism during the five days of investigation which followed the 11/13/2015 attacks in Paris. The feature film was also nominated seven times at the César 2023, notably for the Best Director Award.