Jean-Baptiste Durand

Biography: Born in 1985, Jean-Baptiste Durand grew up in Montpeyroux, a little village near Montpellier. After a difficult time in school, he nevertheless passed a literary baccalaureate with a speciality in art history. He went on to study at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier. He was firstly interested in painting and drawing, but his work evolved towards film. His first short fiction, L'Amour sans le sexe, was his art school graduation film and is an autobiographical film about friendship, exploring the passionate relationship between three young people in a village. On leaving art college, he worked for a time as a technician on films as a stagehand, set constructer, assistant director and even actor. Alongside this he made some rap music videos and continued drawing. In 2014, his first short in a professional context, Il venait de Roumanie, was screened in several festivals. He then made Même les choses invisibles se cachent (2016), a creative documentary on the contemporary artist Abdelkader Benchamma, for whom he had worked as an assistant for several years. His first feature, Chien de la casse (Junkyard Dog), was selected for the screenplay reading at Premiers Plans in 2021. Presented in competition in 2023, the film won the Audience Award.