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Jean-Xavier de Lestrade has directed more than 10 films and is one of France’s most recognized documentary filmmaker. After obtaining degrees in both journalism and law, de Lestrade created a news production company and, in 1992, began directing documentary films for international audiences. The next eight years saw de Lestrade win major European film awards for work such as A White and Pure Australia (Gold FIPA) and Of Justice And Men, a heart-wrenching look at the trials that took place following the Rwandan genocide, which won the prestigious Prix Albert Londres.
In 1999, Jean-Xavier co-founded Maha Productions, and three years later received an Academy Award for his film Murder On A Sunday Morning. Hailed as “a brilliant piece of work” and “as tense and exciting as any fictitious whodunit,” Murder continues to be broadcast worldwide. His next film, the critically acclaimed eight-part documentary series The Staircase, for which he received the IDA award for “Limited Series,” a Peabody and a DuPont award, has been called “one of the best TV programs I have ever seen,” (Associated Press) and described by the New York Times as “....brilliantly conceived; reported, filmed... a masterpiece.” Since 2006, Jean-Xavier wrote and directed three fiction films, Welcome Home, The Silent Daughter, and A Vanishing Lady.
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