New Blood

Maxime Chattam

President of the New Blood Jury
Writer

Maxime Chattam has been writing since he learned to tell himself stories. A fan of Lovecraft and Stephen King, he nonetheless rose to fame with grounded thrillers, notably “The Trilogy of Evil.” His first fantasy novel, “The Fifth Reign,” won Best Fantasy Novel at the 2003 Gérardmer Festival.

He alternates between ultra-dark, fast-paced crime novels and more offbeat books, geopolitical or historical thrillers and fantasy adventures for young readers. In recent years, his early literary passions have returned to the fore with “The Signal” (2018) and “The Illusion” (2020), horror novels full of twists and turns.

A passionate cinema lover, he collects posters and films (over 8,000 in his library) and is currently creating a TV series for a French channel. He lives in the woods with his wife, children, dogs and cats, worships at the altar of playfulness (a staunch defender of role-playing games), watches American football every Sunday, and writes in a vast cabinet of curiosities lost somewhere near the end of the 19th century in the company of, among others, an Egyptian mummy, a six-foot tall stuffed werewolf and an entire collection of skulls…

His books have sold over 8 million copies in French, and have been translated in over 20 countries. His new novel, “The Constancy of the Predator,” was published by Albin Michel last November.

Anne Azoulay

Actress

After slamming the doors of the Rue Blanche school to undergo training with Russian, English and even Balinese teachers, Anne Azoulay has alternated between national stages and more underground experiences, acting for, among others, Ödon Von Horvàth, Minyana, Thomas Bernhardt, Beckett, Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, and Virginie Despentes, who earned her a Molière nomination for her performance in “King Kong Theory.”

She made her film debut alongside Harold Manning and Vladimir Léon in Loin du front (1998) and was then directed by Marie Vermillard and Joël Brice in Suites parlées (2010), Philippe Ramos in Farewell Homeland (2002) and Silent Streams (2018), Pierre Schoeller in The Minister (2011), Pascale Ferran in Bird People (2014), Bruno Rolland in Léa (2015), Tonie Marshall in Number One (2017), and Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache in The Specials (2019). She also joined the cast of several series such as Éric Rochant’s The Bureau, Thomas Cailley’s Ad Vitam, Frédéric Mermoud’s Criminal and, more recently, The 7 Lives of Lea directed by Julien Despeaux for Netflix.

A 2002 César Révélation for Philippe Ramos’ Farewell Homeland, she was nominated again in 2012 for her performance in Bruno Rolland’s Léa. In 2019, she directed her first short film, 2 or 3 Things About Marie Jacobson.

Tracy Gotoas

Actress

Tracy Gotoas’ fascination with film goes back to her childhood spent in Essonne, when she covertly watched Antoine Fuqua’s police thriller Training Day. Dreaming of becoming an actress, she took classes at the Conservatory and the Blanche Salant theater workshop. After writing and directing the short film Elikia (2016), she played small roles in popular comedies like Julien Guetta’s The Troubleshooter (2018) and Gabriel Julien-Laferrière’s Neuilly Yo Mama II (2018).

For television, Tracy Gotoas acted in Jérôme Cornuau’s TV movie Above the Sky (2020), broadcast on TF1, and Nolwenn Lemesle’s fiction film Owning It (2021) for Arte. For Netflix, she appeared in the first two seasons of the crime thriller series Ganglands, opposite Sami Bouajila, and in Regis Blondeau’s action film Restless, with Franck Gastambide. On the big screen, she played the lead female role in last year’s thriller Blazing Neon by FGKO.

This year, Tracy Gotoas was nominated for a female Révélation César for her role as a young caregiver joining a grassroots occupation in Émilie Carpentier’s The Horizon. She currently stars in Jennifer Devoldère’s Sage-homme, with Karin Viard and Melvin Boomer.

Cédric Kahn

Director, actor, screenwriter & producer

Cédric Kahn started out as an intern-editor on Maurice Pialat’s film Under the Sun of Satan, then directed his first short film, Les dernières heures du millénaire, in 1990. Two years later, he made his first feature film Railway Bar, then won the Jean-Vigo Award for his next film Too Much Happiness (1994), and the Louis-Delluc Award for Boredom (1998). He was in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival with Roberto Succo, then directed Red Lights, presented in competition at the Berlinale, The Plane with Vincent Lindon and Isabelle Carré, Regrets with Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Yvan Attal, and A Better Life with Guillaume Canet and Leïla Bekhti.

After a first experience with acting in Xavier Beauvois’ Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, he appeared two decades later in Élie Wajeman’s The Anarchists, Axelle Ropert’s Miss and the Doctors, Laurent Tirard’s Up for Love and Joachim Lafosse’s After Love. In 2014, he won the Special Jury Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival for his film Wild Life, and four years later, his lead actor Anthony Bajon won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor at the Berlinale for his film The Prayer.

Cédric Kahn has also appeared in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Margaux Bonhomme’s Head Above Water, Cédric Jimenez’s November and the series Call My Agent!, in which he played himself. His eleventh feature, Happy Birthday, starring Catherine Deneuve and Emmanuelle Bercot, was released in 2019. He is currently directing Making of and Le Procès Goldman.

Laurent Stocker

Actor

Born in Champagne, Laurent Stocker decided to become an actor at age seven. After training at the Gérard Philipe workshops, he entered the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Arts at age 20, then went on to perform throughout Europe and Asia, working notably with Georges Lavaudant. In 2001, he joined the Comédie-Française and, three years later, became its 511th sociétaire (since Molière). There, he has had the good fortune of playing the greatest roles from the repertoire in over 50 productions, under the stewardship of Christophe Rauck, Katharina Thalbach, Omar Porras, Bob Wilson, Alain Françon, Jacques Lassale and Julie Deliquet.

In parallel, Laurent Stocker has pursued a career in film and television, with over 40 films to his credit. Among others, he has appeared alongside Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet in Claude Berri’s Hunting and Gathering, which earned him the Most Promising Actor César in 2008, in Emmanuel Mouret’s Caprice (2015), Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s The Summer House (2018), and more recently, Albert Dupontel’s Bye Bye Morons (2020) and Frédéric Tellier’s Goliath (2022). This year, after gracing the big screen in Noémie Lvovsky’s The Great Magic, Laurent Stocker stars in Laetitia Masson’s latest film, Summer Frost.