Michel Gondry

Michel grew up in Versailles with his family who had a passion for pop music, however Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 1980s he began art school in Paris where he developed his graphic design skills but also created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their music videos in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour', which won practically every existing music video award. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed eight other Björk videos. This led to collaborations with other artists around the world, including Massive Attack, Kylie, White Stripes, Foo Fighters, Chemical Brothers, Metronomy, Beyonce, Kanye West, Daft Punk and Rolling Stones.

Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie ‘Human Nature’ in 2001, adapting a Charlie Kaufman scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. This film allowed him to direct ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film winning him his first Oscar.

After ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, Michel Gondry kept surprising himself with extraordinary ideas within his films and commercials. ‘Drugstore’ for Levi’s, became the most awarded commercial of all time. Michel directed deeply personal movies including ‘The Science of Sleep’, or a love letter to filmmaking: ‘Be Kind, Rewind’. With recent French productions ‘Moon Indigo’ and ‘Microbe & Gasoline’, Michel Gondry continues to fascinate audiences with his unique craft.

Over the past 10 years Michel has directed commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and more recently Fed-ex and Pandora.