Jean-Jacques Beineix began his career in 1964 as
Jean Becker's assistant director on the popular French TV series ''
. He remained with the series for three years. In 1970, he worked for Claude Berri and, the following year, for Claude Zidi. In 1972, he was second assistant director on the Jerry Lewis drama The Day the Clown Cried''. In 1977, Beineix directed his first short movie,
Le Chien de M. Michel, which won first prize at the Trouville Festival. In 1980, Beineix directed his first feature film,
Diva, which received four
Césars. The film was also entered in the
12th Moscow International Film Festival.
Diva is considered the first film of what was later described as the
cinéma du look. His second feature,
Moon in the Gutter, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1983
Cannes Festival. Nominated for three Césars in 1984, it would win one award in the Best Production Design category. In 1986, Beineix directed
Betty Blue (original title:
37°2 le matin), in which
Béatrice Dalle and
Jean-Hugues Anglade starred. In 1987, it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar, in the same category as that year's
British Academy Film Awards and
Golden Globes. It won the 1986
Montréal World Film Festival's Grand Prix des Amériques and Most Popular Film awards and, in 1987, the
Boston Society of Film Critics award for best foreign language film. It also received the Best Poster award, one of nine Césars for which it was nominated. Beineix directed
Roselyne and the Lions in 1989, The 1992 Seattle International Film Festival awarded Beineix its Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director for both
Betty Blue and ''IP5: L'île aux pachydermes''. , (February 2009) In 1984 Beineix formed his own production company, Cargo Films, in order to retain his artistic independence.
Betty Blue (
37°2 le matin) was his first film produced by Cargo, and he became executive producer of all its projects. The company produces feature films and documentaries on a wide variety of themes from science to art, to women's rights and social problems. He worked in partnership with national scientific organizations such as
CNES and
CNRS to produce documentaries. In 2008, Beineix directed a corporate film for CNRS,
2 infinities (L2i). It was shown at the October 2008 New York Imagine Science film festival. ==Personal life==