Cédric Anger

Anger was a critic for Cahiers du cinéma from 1993 to 2001,^[2] where he arrived at the age of 18 as a protégé of Jean Douchet.^[3] While in high school, Anger started a magazine which he sent to Douchet as well as Serge Daney and Alain Bergala. Douchet and Daney responded. On the occasion of Douchet introducing Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959) in a theater, Douchet advised Anger to write for Cahiers du cinéma. He traveled to Paris on the year of his graduation, where Douchet introduced him to Thierry Jousse. Anger began working for the magazine by the end of 1993, but left six months later to work as an assistant on André Téchiné's Thieves (1996) and on other films. He returned to Cahiers du cinéma at the beginning of 1995 when a new staff was taking charge of the magazine.^[4]

Anger got his start in film co-writing the screenplays for Xavier Beauvois's films To Matthieu (2000) and Le Petit Lieutenant (2005), the latter of which garnered Anger a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 31st César Awards. In 2002, he made his directorial debut with the short film Novela, which had a positive reception from critics as well as at festivals. That same year, he co-wrote the screenplay for Werner Schroeter's film Two (2002).^[5]

In 2007, he made his feature directorial debut, The Killer, a thriller starring Gilbert Melki, Mélanie Laurent and Grégoire Colin.^[6][7] In 2014, he directed his third film, Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart, inspired by the story of the killer gendarme Alain Lamare,^[8] and for which Anger received a nomination for Best Adaptation at the 40th César Awards.^[9][10]

In June 2024, Apple TV+ announced a six-part thriller series starring Benoît Magimel and Mélanie Laurent, created and directed by Anger.^[11] Titled The Hunt, the series was postponed in November 2025 pending an investigation into allegations that Anger plagiarized the series' story from Douglas Fairbairn's 1973 novel Shoot, which previously was adapted into the 1976 film Shoot.^[12][13][14] The series premiered on Apple TV in March 2026 with a label on each episode identifying it as having been adapted from Fairbairn's novel and also credits the 1976 film adaptation.^[15]