Louis Delluc

Born in Cadouin, Dordogne, on October 14, 1890, he moved to Paris with his family as a teenager and first built a career in literary journalism and criticism. During the 1910s he turned toward the new art of cinema, becoming one of France’s earliest major film critics and an important champion of film as a serious artistic medium.

He is especially associated with the first wave of French avant-garde and Impressionist cinema. Alongside his criticism and editing work, he directed a series of silent films in the early 1920s, including Fièvre, La Femme de nulle part, and L'Inondation. He is also closely linked with the idea of "photogénie," a term used to describe the uniquely expressive power of the camera.

Delluc died young, on March 22, 1924, at just 33 years old, but his influence lasted far beyond his lifetime. In France, the Prix Louis-Delluc—created in the 1930s—has helped keep his name alive as a symbol of serious, adventurous filmmaking.