Damien Bonnard

After study­ing at the Beaux-Arts, Damien Bon­nard held var­i­ous jobs, took act­ing class­es, did extra work in films, appeared in short films and played small and then sup­port­ing roles in fea­tures direct­ed by Bertrand Bli­er, Christo­pher Nolan, Rachid Bouchareb and Brigitte Sy, among oth­ers. He nabbed his first lead­ing role in Alain Guiraudie’s 2016 Stay­ing Ver­ti­cal, which earned him a Most Promis­ing Actor César nom­i­na­tion. He also won the Most Promis­ing Actor Lumière Award that year. Two years lat­er, the actor received a Best Sup­port­ing Actor César nom­i­na­tion for his role in Pierre Salvadori’s The Trou­ble With You. He went on to play Pen­to in Ladj Ly’s Les Mis­érables, which won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2019 and rep­re­sent­ed France at the Oscars. His per­for­mance earned him a Best Actor César nom­i­na­tion, and he gained anoth­er nom­i­na­tion two years lat­er in the same cat­e­go­ry for Joachim Lafosse’s The Rest­less. After work­ing from 2017 to 2023 with, among oth­ers, Nathan Sil­ver in Thirst Street, F.J. Ossang in 9 Fin­gers, Léopold Legrand in The Sixth Child, Yór­gos Lán­thi­mos in Bleat, Roman Polan­s­ki in An Offi­cer and a Spy, Dominik Moll in Only the Ani­mals, Wes Ander­son in The French Dis­patch and Aster­oid City, and Ilan Klip­per in The Peace and Love Process, Damien Bon­nard was fea­tured ear­li­er this year in Brigitte Sy’s Le Bon­heur est pour demain and Yór­gos Lán­thi­mos’ Poor Things. He will soon appear in Céline Sallette’s Niki, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path, Aki­hi­ro Hana’s Grand ciel, Manele Labidi’s Reine mère, Syl­vain Desclous’ Le Sys­tème Vic­to­ria, Antonie Chevrollier’s Block Pass and Emmanuel Mouret’s Trois amies.