Lucas Belvaux

In 1979, when Lucas Belvaux was 18 years old, he ran away from his birthplace of Namur, Belgium, and hitchhiked to Paris, determined to become an actor. Two years later, after some minor TV appearances, he landed the lead role of Simon Chalumot in Yves Boisset's adaptation of "Allons z'enfants," a tragic novel by Yves Gibeau about a rebellious young boy forced by his father to enroll in military school around the time of World War II. In 1992, Belvaux made his directorial debut with the comedy "Parfois trop d'amour," a story he wrote about three friends who travel to the seaside and reveal secrets about themselves after a night out in Paris. In 2002, he wrote, directed, and acted in the critically acclaimed "Trilogie," a group of three films--"An Amazing Couple," "The Run," and "After the Life"--with connecting stories, characters, and locations, but all shot in different genres (comedy, police, and drama, respectively), and from different perspectives. In 2003, the trilogy won him the prestigious Prix Louis-Dullus, which is awarded to the best French film of the year.