Jean-Gabriel Périot

Born in France in 1974, Jean-Gabriel Périot has made many short films on the edge of documentary, experimental and fiction.
He has developed his own editing style that questions violence and history, based on film and photographic archives material. His films, including Dies Irae, Even If She Had Been a Criminal…, Nijuman no borei (200 000 Phantoms) and The Devil, have won awards at numerous festivals throughout the world.
His first feature film, A German Youth opened the Panorama section at the 2015 Berlinale, before being released on German, Swiss and French cinemas and honored with several awards. Summer Lights, his first feature-length fiction film, premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival. It was released in France in the summer of 2017 and Our Defeats, a feature-length documentary, was presented at the Forum of the 2019 Berlinale.
His latest feature film, Returning to Reims, a documentary adapted from Didier Eribon’s book, and starring Adèle Haenel, was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and released in 2021. The film won a César for Best Documentary in 2023.