Pioneering French director Jean-Jacques Annaud has often seemed as much anthropologist as filmmaker, taking great pains to faithfully create the disparate cultures that have driven his films. Time after time he has depicted the conflict that occurs when one culture bumps up against another and the resultant emotional transformations that arise from these clashes. His globetrotting has taken him from Vietnam (where he became the first non-Asian in 50 years to shoot anything but live ammunition) to the Andes (substituting for the Himalayas), the Canadian Rockies (standing in for the Andes) to
Fulfilled mandatory period of military service in Cameroon, Africa
Began career as film director making educational films while serving in French Army
Directed over 500 commercials (for which he won numerous Clio and Silver Lion Awards)
1976
First film as director and screenwriter, "Victoire en chantant/Black and White in Color"; won Oscar as Best Foreign-Language Film
1978
Co-wrote (with Alain Godard and director Pierre Richard) the screenplay for a film he did not direct, "Je suis timide, mais je me soigne/I'm Shy But I'm Treating It"
