Claire Denis (b. 1948) is a Paris-based filmmaker and one of the major artistic voices of contemporary French cinema. After studying economics, Claire Denis enrolled in the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, where she graduated in 1971. At the beginning of her film career, she worked as an assistant director to Dušan Makavejev, Costa Gavras, Jacques Rivette, Jim Jarmusch, and Wim Wenders. In 1988, her first film Chocolate—a semi-autobiographical story set in colonial Africa in the 1950s—was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated at the César Awards. In 1994, I Can’t Sleep was selected in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1996, she received the Golden Leopard Prize at Locarno for Nenette and Boni. This was followed by Good Work (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001), Friday Night (2002), 35 Shots of Rum (2008), White Material (2009), Bastards (2013), Let the Sunshine In (2017), High Life (2018), Both Sides of the Blade (2022), and Stars at Noon (2022).