ISABELLE HUPPERT
French icon Isabelle Huppert’s career spans more than four decades, with no signs of slowing down. From her BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer in THE LACEMAKER (1977), to her César Award for Best Actress in Claude Chabrol’s LA CÉRÉMONIE (1995), to her turns in master works by world auteurs from the early 2000s onward (think Michael Haneke’s 2001 THE PIANO TEACHER and Claire Denis’ 2009 WHITE MATERIAL), Huppert has cemented her place as one of cinema’s greatest performers. While she has starred in a number of films that have screened at AFI FEST — Haneke’s AMOUR and Hong Sang-soo’s IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, both in 2012 — we are thrilled to have Huppert in person at the festival this year for the first time ever. Her blend of spiky intelligence, no-nonsense wit and sensitivity are on full display in two AFI FEST selections this year. In Paul Verhoeven’s ELLE, a Gala Tribute, Huppert plays a powerful woman dealing with the aftermath of an assault while trying to figure out the identity of her masked assailant. In Mia Hansen-Løve’s World Cinema selection THINGS TO COME (L’AVENIR), Huppert nimbly inhabits the role of a passionate philosophy professor who must navigate two life-altering events.