Jaco Van Dormael

Jaco Van Dormael was born on February 9th 1957 in Ixelles, Belgium and spent part of his childhood in Germany.

After studying film at Louis-Lumiere in Paris and INSAS in Brussels, he became a children’s theatre director and clown. He has written and directed several fictional short films and documentaries – "Mae-deli-La-Breche" (1980), "Stade" (1981), "L’imitateur" (1982), "Sortie de secours" (1983), "E pericolososporgersi" (1984) and "De Boot" (1985) – before going on to write and direct three feature films: "Toto the Hero" (1991)with Michel Bouquet which won a Camera d’or award at the Cannes Film Festival, "The Eighth Day" with Pascal Duquenne and Daniel Auteuil (1996) which won the best actor prize (ex æquo) at Cannes, and "Mr. Nobody "(2009) with Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger and Lin Dan Pham which won a prize at the Venice Film Festival and three prizes at the Magrittes awards ceremony (best film, best director and best original screenplay), as well as the Audience Prize at the European Film Awards.

Jaco Van Dormael has also directed for theater, including "Est-cequ’on ne pourrait pas s’aimerunpeu?" with Eric De Staerke. In 2012 he directed his first opera, "Stradella" by Cesar Franck, to mark the reopening of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liege. In the dreamy atmosphere of his productions, Jaco Van Dormael explores the power of the imagination and the contribution of childhood.

In under thirty years he has developed a poetic and ambitious world of his own with non-linear narrative forms. He lives with choreographer Michele Anne De Mey and has two daughters, Alice and Juliette. His brother Pierre Van Dormael (1952-2008) was a composer and jazz guitarist.