CLAIRE SIMON was born in Britain, but spent most of her childhood in the Var. A student of ethnology, Arabic and Berber. She made her first self-taught short films at the beginning of 1980s. Her time at the Ateliers Varan proved decisive, where she discovered the virtues of direct cinema. Alongside her work as an editor, she made several short films, including LA POLICE, which won the best short film prize at the Belfort Festival.
In 1991, Claire Simon made a highly acclaimed drama series for the small screen, SCENES DE MENAGE, in which a housewife (Miou-Miou) performs a domestic task while thinking aloud about her married life.
A year later, with RECREATIONS, a documentary, she filmed human comedies in the playground of a nursery school, and the film was released in cinemas in 1997. Meanwhile, the filmmaker made a name for herself in the documentary world with COUTE QUE COUTE, At All Costs chronicling the struggle and downfall of a small ready meal company.
In 1997, she made her first feature film, SINON, OUI, based on a true story about a woman who invents a pregnancy and steals a child.
After this film, which was shown at Cannes as part of Director’s Fortnight , she went on to shoot ÇA C'EST VRAIMENT TOI for television, with students from the TNS, mixing documentary and fiction at the European Parliament. Grand Prize for Fiction and Documentary at the Belfort Festival.
Drawing on authentic stories that reflect her taste for the novelistic, she filmed her 15-year-old daughter's flirtation (800 KM DE DIFFERENCE) and the novel of a lifetime (MIMI) premiered in the Forum at the Berlinale 2004. In 2006, she returned to the realm of pure fiction with ÇA BRULE/ IT BURNS (presented at the Directors' Fortnight), about a rebellious teenager with a burning love for a fireman. In 2008 she directed LES BUREAUX DE DIEU, GOD’S OFFICES in which famous actresses play the roles of family planning counsellors. (with Nathalie Baye, Nicole Garcia, Isabelle Carré, Michel Boujenah, etc.) Grand prix de la SACD à DIRECTOR’S FORTNIGHT à Cannes), drawing a thin line between documentary and fiction.
We find this characteristic in GARE DU NORD (2013 with Nicole Garcia, François Damiens, Reda Kateb, Monia Chokri) and GEOGRAPHIE HUMAINE (documentary), in which the filmmaker compares our passage on earth to a passage through a railway station.
In her highly acclaimed documentary LE BOIS DONT LES REVES SONT FAITS (2015), Claire Simon films the Bois de Vincennes as the accessible form of a lost paradise, a place where everyone comes to find refuge and invent their own utopia, it premiered at LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL
LE CONCOURS (2016), won the Best Documentary Film Award at the 2016 Venice Biennale.
It was released in the US by Metrograph
PREMIERES SOLITUDES (2017) was presented at the Forum at the Berlinale 2018. A funny and mischievous portrait that blows away all the clichés about today's teenagers.
A documentary serie LE VILLAGE 9X 52' or 18 X30. Nine hours of suspense around documentary and agriculture in a small village in the Ardèche. She made a feature documentary out of the serie THE GROCER’S SON , THE MAYOR, THE VILLAGE AND THE WORLD, which pemiered at IDFA and was presented at True False and at the MOMI.
During the lockdown she made a documentary for television “ Garage engine and men” and prepared a feature “I want talk about Duras” which premiered at San Sebatian film festival, about the love between Marguerite Duras and Yann Andrea 38 years younger . A film about submission.
Then she did OUR BODY a documentary feature which opened the Forum at the Berlinale, released also in the USA by Cinema Guild ,and won a lot of prizes . In a the gynecological unit of a French Hospital she draws the epic life of women body from youth to old age, and she was caught also herself as a patient.
In 2023 she went back to children with a film about a elementary school in suburbs of Paris “ELEMENTARY” showing the extraordinary desire to learn of the children and the incredible genius of the teachers. It has been selected by Cannes’ Official Festival.
Filmography :
2024 APPRENDRE
2022 NOTRE CORPS
2021 VOUS NE DESIREZ QUE MOI fiction
2021 GARAGE DES MOTEIRS ET DES HOMMES
2020 LE FILS DE L’EPICIERE LE MAIRE LE VILLAGE ET LE MONDE
2019 LE VILLAGE série documentaire
2017 PREMERES SOLITUDES
2016 LE CONCOURS
2015 LE BOIS DONT LES REVES SONT FAITS
2013 GARE DU NORD fiction
2013 GEOGRAPHIE HUMAINE
2008 LES BUREAUX DE DIEU fiction
2006 CA BRULE fiction
2002 MIMI
2001 800KM DE DIFFERENCE
1997 SINON OUI fiction
1995 COUTE QUE COUTE
1992 RECREATIONS
1991 SCENES DE MENAGE (10 CM) fiction
1988 LA POLICE CM fiction
1982 TANDIS QUE J’AGONISE CM fiction
1981 MOI NON OU L’ARGENT DE PATRICIA
English (UK) 
Français