Jaco Van Dormael was born on February 9, 1957 in Ixelles. After studying directing at the Insas (Brussels), and camera at the Louis-Lumière school (Paris), he worked as a clown and directed shows for children. In the 1980s, he directed several documentaries and short films. In 1992, his first feature film, Toto le héros, starring Michel Bouquet, won the Caméra d’or at the Cannes Film Festival and the César for best foreign film. In 1995, he directed The Eighth Day, with Pascal Duquenne and Daniel Auteuil, the film that revealed him to the general public. Mr Nobody, with Jared Leto, Sarah Polley and Diane Kruger, was released in 2009 and was followed in 2015 by The Very New Testament with Benoît Poelvoorde and Catherine Deneuve. In the meantime, he decided to return to live performance, and with his partner dancer and choreographer, Michèle Anne De Mey, he made the amazing Kiss and Cry (2009), Cold Blood (2015) and Amor (2018).