Christian Carion
Christian Carion (born 4 January 1963) is a French film director, dialogue writer and screenwriter, gaining international attention for Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas), which was nominated for several awards, including the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Christian Carion
- Name
- Christian Carion
- Born
- 4 January 1963
- Birthplace
- Cambrai, Nord, France
- Occupation
- Film director, screenwriter
- Nationality
- France
- Honours
- Knight of the Legion of Honour · Knight of the National Order of Merit · Officer of the National Order of Merit
- Languages
- German · French
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Christian Carion (born 4 January 1963) is a French film director, dialogue writer and screenwriter, gaining international attention for Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas), which was nominated for several awards, including the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q766656 · wikipedia · Christian Carion
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Christian Carion • Born — 4 January 1963 • Birthplace — Cambrai, Nord, France • Occupation — Film director, screenwriter • Years Active — 1999–present
Life and career
Life and career
Christian Carion was born into a family of farmers in the north of France. Carion's youth was spent in his parents' farm fields, where he was constantly reminded of World War I as the family often found dangerous, unexploded shells left over from the conflicts in the fields. He had also heard of the stories in which French soldiers would leave their trenches at night to meet with their wives in the surrounding German-occupied towns and return to fight the next morning. After passing his baccalauréat, he joined an engineering school affiliated to the French ministry of agriculture. Later he decided to quit his scientific career and began shooting films he himself describes as "uninteresting". When he met Christophe Rossignon, both men started to collaborate in movie-making - Carion as film-maker and Rossignon as producer. In 1999, Rossignon also acted in Carion's short film Monsieur le député. In 2001, Carion directed his first feature film: Une hirondelle a fait le printemps (The Girl from Paris), the story, an hommage to his upbringing, tells the meeting of a brooding farmer, Michel Serrault, and a parisian girl seeking the calm of the countryside, played by Mathilde Seigner. The film attracted over 2.4 million of French moviegoers. Following this success, Carion started a more ambitious project, Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas). Screened in Cannes for the film festival in 2005, this historic fiction film depicts the fraternizations of warriors from three different countries on the eve of Christmas during World War I. Carion stated that he'd never heard of the actual Christmas truce incidents while growing up in France, as the French Army and authorities suppressed them, having been viewed as an act of disobedience. He was introduced to the story via a historian who showed him photos and documents archived in France, Great Britain, and Germany. The film was a commercial success. It was nominated for numerous awards at the French César Awards and for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Two years later, he filmed another historic film; L'Affaire Farewell (Farewell), with Emir Kusturica and Guillaume Canet - a spy film set in Russia and based on true events. In 2014 he shot, on the roads of northern France, En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. This movie is another historical piece about the exodus of millions of people in May 1940, when France was falling apart and the inhabitants of northern France were fleeing the German troops. Written using numerous recollections from the northern people, the film depicts the quest of a German dissident, looking for his son. The original music was composed by Ennio Morricone.
Filmography
Filmography
• Year — Title — Credited as — Notes • Director — Screenwriter — Actor • 1999 — Monsieur le député — Short film • 2001 — The Girl from Paris (Une hirondelle a fait le printemps) — Palm Springs International Film Festival - John Schlesinger Award (Honourable Mention) Nominated—César Award for Best First Feature Film • 2005 — Joyeux Noël — Leeds International Film Festival - Audience Award Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Audience Choice Award Valladolid International Film Festival - FIPRESCI Prize Nominated—Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language Nominated—César Award for Best Film Nominated—César Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated—European Film Academy People's Choice Award for Best European Film Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated—Globes de Cristal Award for Best Film • 2006 — Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne) • 2009 — Farewell (L'affaire Farewell) • 2015 — Come What May (En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît) • 2017 — Mon garçon • 2021 — My Son • 2022 — Driving Madeleine (Une belle course)
Identity
Identity
Christian Carion is recorded as having received Knight of the Legion of Honour, Knight of the National Order of Merit and Officer of the National Order of Merit.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1963
Christian Carion born at Cambrai.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q766656: Christian Carion
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Christian Carion”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît par Christian Carion, Laure Irrmann, The French Review, 2016
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2016
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît par Christian Carion, Laure Irrmann, The French Review, 2016Crossref registry
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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