Laurent Cantet dead at 63: Award-winning film director who won the Palme d’Or, has died

Award-winning film director Laurent Cantet has died at 63, he won the Palme d’Or for the film The Class at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. Laurent Cantet studied at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques in Paris and began his career working in television.

Laurent Cantet’s first feature film in 1999 was entitled Human Resources and told the story of a management trainee starting a job at his father’s factory, it won best feature film at the César Awards, which is France’s equivalent of the Oscars. In 2001, Laurent Cantet film Time Out, explored the story of a man who did not tell his family he had been laid off. 

Laurent Cantet is best remembered for his film The Class which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. According to Variety, “The Class is based on the novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau and is a semi-autobiographical account of his experience as a teacher in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Bégaudeau also starred in the film. “The Class'' received a unanimous vote for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, making it the first French film to do so since 1987. The movie also earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film.”

Described by the Cannes Film Festival as someone who was “a fierce humanist, who sought light despite social violence and found hope despite the harshness of reality,” tackled 1970s sex tourism in Haiti in the film Heading South. His movie Time Out, won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 and was about the true story of a man who pretended to be a successful doctor and killed his parents, wife and children. 

In 2017, Laurent Cantet co-wrote and directed The Workshop, which is set in La Ciotat, a town near Marseille. The town which used to be prosperous is now in decline after a huge dockyard closed 25 years ago. A writing workshop is set up to help troubled young people integrate into work. 

Before Laurent Cantet passed away, he had been working on The Apprentice, a film that is set for release next year. His previous work Arthur Rambo looked at how a reputation could be destroyed on social media.