Vincent Lindon (born 15 July 1959) is a French actor and filmmaker. For his role in the film The Measure of a Man (2015), Lindon won Best Actor at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Best Actor at the 41st César Awards and the IFFI Best Actor Award (Male) at the 46th International Film Festival of India. Lindon was selected as the president of the jury for the main competition section of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. In 2024, Lindon was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice International Film Festival for his lead role in The Quiet Son.

Early life and education

Vincent Lindon is the son of Laurent Lindon, who was director of the company Audioline. He is the grandson of Raymond Lindon, who served as the magistrate and mayor of Étretat between 1929 and 1959, as well as the nephew of Jérôme Lindon, director of Les Éditions de Minuit. He is also the great-grandson of Fernande Citroën, the older sister of André Citroën and wife of Alfred Lindon (born Abner Lindenbaum), a Jewish jeweler and modern art collector originally from Kraków, Poland. Through his mother, Alix Dufaure, a journalist for Marie Claire, Lindon is a descendant of French Prime minister Jules Dufaure and Marshal Rémy Joseph Isidore Exelmans. Lindon completed studies at the Lycée Victor-Duruy, where he obtained a baccalauréat scientifique. He then enrolled in an école supérieure de commerce, but lost interest in his studies after 22 days. In 1979, his mother secured an internship for him as a costume design assistant on the set of Alain Resnais' film My American Uncle (1980), on which he worked with actor Gérard Depardieu. He then spent six months in New York working as an assistant in charge of radio promotion with his uncle, Eric Dufaure, founder of the label Cachalot Records (Ian North, Die Hausfrauen, Medium Medium, Malaria, Stars of the Streets, Comateens, Made in France, Personal Effects). When he returned to Paris, his father-in-law Pierre Bénichou secured a position for him managing the microphones for the tour of comedian Coluche in 1981. He was also a courier for the newspaper Le Matin de Paris before entering the Cours Florent drama school.

Career

Since 1980, Vincent Lindon has worked with renowned film directors Claude Sautet, Claude Lelouch, Coline Serreau, Bertrand Blier, Claire Denis, Emmanuel Carrère, Nicole Garcia, Stéphane Brizé, Jacques Doillon, Xavier Giannoli, Julia Ducournau, Alain Cavalier, Mathieu Kassovitz, Benoît Jacquot, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Diane Kurys, Claude Pinoteau, Pierre Jolivet. In 2005, he won the Swann d'Or for best actor at the Cabourg Film Festival for La Moustache by Emmanuel Carrère. In 2013, he chaired the jury of the 39th Deauville American Film Festival. In 2015, he earned the Best Actor Award at the 68th Cannes Film Festival and then the César Award for Best Actor at the 41st ceremony for the film The Measure of a Man directed by Stéphane Brizé. In May 2022, he was appointed as president of the jury for the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, succeeding Spike Lee. In 2024, he starred in the film Le Deuxième Acte directed by Quentin Dupieux, which was the opening film for the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival Lindon was also awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 2024 Venice Film Festival for his lead role in The Quiet Son.

Personal life

In the 1980s, Lindon was in a relationship with Claude Chirac, daughter of President Jacques Chirac, for nearly ten years. Lindon later had a highly-publicised relationship with Caroline, Princess of Monaco. Lindon has a son, Marcel, born in 1996. He married actress Sandrine Kiberlain in 1998, with whom he has a daughter, Suzanne, born in 2000. The couple met in 1993 on the set of the film L'Irrésolu (1994). They separated in 2003.

Selected filmography

Awards and nominations