11 March 2025 (Hong Kong) – The 49th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF49) will host the acclaimed French auteur Leos Carax in its popular Meet the Filmmaker series.  Carax will share his artistic vision with Hong Kong audiences and present his latest work, It’s Not Me, along with three seminal feature films.

Regarded as one of contemporary cinema’s most distinctive French filmmakers, the maverick Carax embodies the enduring influence of the Paris-based New Wave movement.  He inherits its spirit of iconoclasm, crafting a dark strain of romanticism that transcends the mundane.  His films often focus on grotesque outsiders and society’s rejects, who embrace a passionate but destructive love.  With six feature films to his name, Carax creates a seductive world of shadows, showcasing flights of poetic fancy and a glamour of decadence.

After debuting at twenty-three with Boy Meets Girl, Carax established a long-term collaboration with the actor Denis Lavant, who has become his alter ego on screen, delivering memorable performances in Bad Blood, The Lovers on the Bridge, and Holy Motors.  Carax’s muse, Juliette Binoche, portrayed his enchanting lover in two films, earning the European Film Award for Best Actress for her role in The Lovers on the Bridge, marking her first significant achievement in an illustrious career.

After nearly a decade-long hiatus, Carax returned to filmmaking in 2021 with Annette, which features Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.  This musical tragedy explores a toxic marriage and the inner struggles of fatherhood.  In response to a prompt from Paris’s Centre Pompidou in 2024, Carax crafted It’s Not Me to pay tribute to the late Jean-Luc Godard.  Through a dynamic collage of dreams, poems, personal romance, and invigorating cinephilia, Carax reflects on his beginnings and offers a glimpse into his future.

HKIFF49 will take place over 12 days, from 10 to 21 April 2025.

Films by Leos Carax to feature in HKIFF49 are:

  • Bad Blood (1986)
  • The Lovers on the Bridge (1991)
  • Annette (2021)
  • It’s Not Me (2024) (short)