Danielle Arbid

Danielle Arbid (born in Lebanon) is a Lebanese and french film director. She has been directing films since 1997.
Selected for numerous festivals in France and the rest of the world (Cannes, New York, San Francisco, Locarno, Pusan, Tokyo, etc.), Danielle Arbid's first two features, Dans les champs de bataille and Un homme perdu, were screened at the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Festival in 2004 and in 2007, as well as in around thirty other festivals, picking up numerous awards, including the Directors' Fortnight Prize and the Milan Grand Prize.
Her documentaries and other filmed essays have been given an excellent reception and won dozens of awards including the Gold Leopard for Conversations de salon at the Locarno Festival and the Silver Leopard for video for Seule avec la guerre in 2001 and 2004 respectively, as well as the Prix Albert Londres (the french Pulitzer) and the Villa Médicis hors les murs Award for Aux Frontières.
Her third fiction feature, Peur de rien (int. title Parisienne) won the Académie Lumière foreign press prize as well as other awards including the Best Actress prize at Les Arcs in 2016… The film had rave reviews from the French press. Peur de rien had its world première at the Toronto Film Festival. Danielle Arbid directed also Beirut Hotel Tv-movie for Arte aired during prime time. One of the channel’s most popular fiction broadcasts in 2012.
Simple Passion her fourth feature film an adaptation of the major french writer Annie Ernaux’s best seller book (Cast Laetitia Dosch / Sergeï Polunin) has just received the Cannes official Selection label in 2020. It was also selected in the San Sebastian Official competition, Toronto FF, Zurich FF, Busan, Les Arcs, Lisbonne & Cintra, festival Lumière, etc.
Five retrospectives have been held around Danielle Arbid's films at the Gijon Festival in 2007 Bastia Festival in 2007, Paris Cinéma in 2007, the La Rochelle Festival in 2008 and Festival Dei Popoli Florence 2016.
Career.
Arbid left Lebanon at the height of the civil war in 1987, at the age of 17, to study literature at a faculty of letters in Paris, France. She also studied journalism while working as a freelance. She directed her first short "Raddem" and the documentary "Seule ave la guerre" (1999). Having never studied film in school, Arbid says her inspiration comes from "art, photography, people in the street and of course film". 
Her first three Conversation de Salon I-III where featured at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria and received the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.
Interested in different narrative forms, her work alternates between; fiction, first person documentaries and video essays; with an experimentation of the intersecting of genres. She was one of the founding members of the Lebanese film festival Né à Beyrouth in 2001. 
Danielle Arbid directed "Beirut Hotel", TV-movie for ARTE aired during prime time. One of the channel’s most popular fiction broadcasts in 2012.
In this interview given during the festival de Popoli in 2016, she said : "I want to be as close to my fictional characters as I am to those of my documentaries. I want to live parallel lives, not just tell stories; feel strong states of mind and sensations. My feature films, the way I perceive them, are like documentaries on my characters. I use a lot close-ups and long focus shoots to penetrate the universe that I create and purloin moments from it, forgetting the reality of the shooting as much as possible.
I have frequently filmed sex. I believe this is a prerogative of mine, as woman and as person of Arab origin. With the portrayal of bodies, and the grace that emanates from them, I try to get close to painting. I am always trying to embellish, exalt the actors. Of course, the show business is always part of making a film, but the most extraordinary thing about cinema is the risk component. You never know the result you’ll get in the end. Coming from a family of gamblers – my father was a poker player – I adore this aspect. When I make a film, I don’t take anything for granted. Nonetheless, I yearn incessantly for every film to be as burning as possible, in both substance and form as well as in the manner it is realized." 
Danielle Arbid has finished her fourth feature, Passion Simple an adaptation of the major French writer Annie Ernaux’s best seller book, with french actress Laetitia Dosch and ballet star Sergei Polunin. Simple Passion was in the Cannes official Selection in 2020. It was also selected in the San Sebastian Official competition, Toronto FF, Zurich FF, Busan, Les Arcs, Lisbonne & Cintra, festival Lumière, etc.
Danielle Arbid is occasionally actress : Dans les champs de bataille 2004, Les Apaches / Thierry de Peretti 2016 and In Réparer les vivants / Katell Quilleveré 2017.
She is also a photographer. 