Lucile Hadžihalilović

1986–1998: Early work

Hadžihalilović worked as an editor for a number of films before beginning her own projects. The first film she worked on was Sylvain Ledey's short Festin (1986),^[8][11] after which she edited Alain Bourges' 1991 documentary Horizons artificiels (Trois rêves d'architecture),^[8] which has been described as "three confrontations between the discourse on architecture and the architecture of speech."^[12]

In the early 1990s, she began to collaborate with the Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé.^[13][7] She produced and edited Noé's short film Carne (1991) and its sequel, the feature-length I Stand Alone (1998), and together they formed the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone in 1991.^[8][14][10] Noé explained their coming together as business partners: "we discovered that we shared a desire to make films atypical and we decided together to create our own society, Les Cinémas de la Zone, in order to finance our projects."^[15] Hadzihalilovic's first film after her graduation, La Bouche de Jean-Pierre (1996), was a result of this collaborative effort. Hadzihalilovic wrote, edited, produced, and directed the film while Noé worked as the cinematographer. La Bouche de Jean-Pierre was shown during the Un Certain Regard panel at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as being selected for various other notable festivals throughout the world.^[10] It is told through the eyes of a young girl, Mimi (Sandra Sammartino), whose mother had attempted suicide. Mimi is then relocated to live with her aunt (Denise Aron-Schropfer) and a man named Jean-Pierre (Michel Trillot). The film features child abuse, and ends with Mimi taking sleeping pills in an effort to copy her mother.^[10]

In 1994, Hadžihalilović worked on the short La Baigneuse by Joel Leberre.^[8] In 1998, Hadžihalilović made Good Boys Use Condoms, one of a series of erotic short films promoting condom use.^[16] Another in the series, Sodomites, was made by Noé.^[13]

2004–2015: Innocence and acclaim

In 2004, she released the critically acclaimed film Innocence,^[17] starring Marion Cotillard and Hélène de Fougerolles. The film was inspired by the 1903 novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls by German playwright Frank Wedekind.^[10] The film follows three young girls who attend a secluded mysterious boarding school and their interactions with their teachers (Cotillard and Fougerolles).^[10] She has commented on the film's similarity or references to Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), and Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive (1973).^[18]

Hadžihalilović released a short entitled Nectar in 2014,^[19] and the feature film Evolution in 2015.^[20] Evolution revolves around young boys who are subjected to mysterious treatments and live on an island inhabited solely by women and themselves.^[21]

Hadžihalilović also contributed to the screenplay of Noé's critically divisive Enter the Void (2009), and continued as a producer of Lux Æterna (2019) and Vortex (2021).^[13]

2021–present: Established director

In 2021, Hadžihalilović released her first English-language feature, Earwig, about a girl whose teeth are made of ice, which won Special Jury Prize at San Sebastian Film Festival.^[22]

In 2025, Hadžihalilović released her fourth feature film, The Ice Tower, starring Marion Cotillard, on their second collaboration after Innocence (2004). The Ice Tower had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival in official competition,^[23] where it won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.^[24] It also won the awards for Best Film and Best Production Design at the 2025 Neuchâtel Fantastic Film Festival,^[25][26] and the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award at the 2025 San Sebastián Film Festival.^[27] The film was released theatrically in France by Metropolitan Filmexport on 17 September 2025.^[28] Yellow Veil Pictures acquired North American distribution rights to the film^[29] and released it theatrically in the United States on 3 October 2025.^[30]

As filmmaker

Editor

Producer

Acting roles