Coralie Fargeat

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Lore & Background

Fargeat was born and raised in Paris. She decided to be a filmmaker when she was 16 or 17 years old. She studied at Sciences Po before beginning work on film sets. In 2010, Fargeat attended La Fémis, a prestigious cinema school in Paris, selected for its Atelier Scénario, a year-long screenwriting workshop. While there, she and a group of director friends created a collective called La Squadra, where they met twice a week and invited filmmakers and industry professionals to share their success stories. Her first short film Le télégramme was released in 2003, a film about two women awaiting a postman's delivery during World War II, winning 13 awards at several film festivals. In 2007, she co-created Les Fées cloches with Anne-Elisabeth Blateau, a comedy mini-series which she also directed. Her short Reality+ (2014) received a nomination for the Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Fargeat is best known for her debut feature film Revenge (2017), a revenge thriller about a young woman who is raped and left for dead. Inspired by Kill Bill, Rambo, and Mad Max, Fargeat was interested in exploring a character who would seem 'weak' and undergo a transformation into a 'kind of superhero.' The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section and was selected to be screened at 23 additional film festivals. In 2022, Fargeat directed an episode of the Netflix series The Sandman, 'Chapter 9: Collectors.' Her second feature film was The Substance (2024), starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. It premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to a strong, critical, but positive, reception, with a 13-minute ovation. Fargeat won the festival's Best Screenplay award. In June 2025, Fargeat was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Fargeat is a member and one of the founding signatories of Collectif 50/50, a group working towards gender equality across the film industry.

In Their Own Story

Fargeat's first short film Le télégramme was released in 2003, a film about two women awaiting a postman's delivery during World War II. The film won 13 awards at several film festivals. In 2007, Fargeat co-created Les Fées cloches with Anne-Elisabeth Blateau, a comedy mini-series which she also directed. Fargeat released her short follow-up Reality+ in 2014. The sci-fi tale received a nomination for the Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Fargeat is best known for her debut feature film Revenge (2017), a revenge thriller about a young woman who is raped and left for dead. Inspired by other revenge movies such as Kill Bill, Rambo, and Mad Max, Fargeat was interested in exploring a character who would seem 'weak' to others and the audience, but during the film would undergo a transformation into a 'kind of superhero' that would set out to get her revenge. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival in the festival's Midnight Madness section, and was selected to be screened at 23 additional film festivals. In 2022, Fargeat directed an episode of the Netflix series The Sandman, 'Chapter 9: Collectors.' In this episode, Fargeat’s style is very evident through her distinct color palette, emphasis on atmospheric elements, and focus on the grotesque. Fargeat's second feature film was The Substance (2024), a body horror film starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. The film premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to a strong, critical, but positive, reception, with a 13-minute ovation. Fargeat went on to win the festival's Best Screenplay award for the film. In June 2025, Fargeat was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Reader's Guide

Fargeat is fascinated with the suspension of disbelief, and is a fan of using imagery and symbols to express something simple in a powerful way. She is fascinated with films that are able to create their own world and manage to exist outside the realm of reality, citing revenge films like Kill Bill and Rambo as examples. In making graphic or gore-filled movies, Fargeat finds that balancing violent scenes with humor makes the violence more tolerable. Fargeat believes that films that fill themselves with homages and references can push the viewer away from being able to identify with the film. She describes this separation as 'second-degree moments' and chooses to stay away from excessive references. Fargeat finds it crucial to approach film and filmmaking with a genuine and sincere vision, stating she tries to 'embrace [her] subject in its choices, its biases, its excesses, in its faults too' to achieve this. When in pre-production for Revenge, she stated that actress Matilda Lutz was chosen for the part partially because of her extensive trust in Fargeat. Fargeat lists David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Paul Verhoeven, and Michael Haneke as filmmakers who have influenced her, as well as crediting several South Korean filmmakers as stylistic inspiration. Fargeat is a member and one of the founding signatories of Collectif 50/50, a group established with the purpose of working towards gender equality across the film industry.

Did You Know?

• Fargeat decided to be a filmmaker when she was 16 or 17 years old.
• Her first short film Le télégramme won 13 awards at several film festivals.
• The Substance (2024) received a 13-minute ovation at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
• Fargeat was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2025.
• She is a founding signatory of Collectif 50/50, a group working towards gender equality in the film industry.