French actress Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert was born in 1955. She was encouraged by her mother to begin acting at a young age, and became a teenage star in Paris. She later attended Versailles Conservatoire and the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Paris, CNSAD. After a successful stage career, she made her film debut in 1972 with Faustine et le bel été directed by Nina Companéez. Her international breakthrough came with La Dentelliere (1977), for which she won a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer. She made her American film debut in Michael Cimino's 1980 film Heaven's Gate. Huppert won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award twice, for Claude Chabrol's Violette Nozière (1978) and Michael Haneke's La pianiste (2001). She is also the most nominated actress for the César Award, with 13 nominations. She won a César Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her performance in Chabrol's La Cérémonie.

Austrian director and screenwriter Michael Haneke was born in 1942. One of today most influent filmmakers, his films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke's feature film debut was 1989's The Seventh Continent, which served to trace out the violent and bold style that would bloom in later years. Three years later, the controversial Benny's Video put Haneke's name on the map. Haneke's greatest successes came in 1997 with Funny Games, in 2001 with The Piano Teacher (Grand Prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and Best Actor and Actress awards to Benoît Magimel and Isabelle Huppert), in 2003 with Time of the Wolf and in 2005 with Caché. At the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, his The White Ribbon won the Palme d'Or for Best Film, and at the 67^th Golden Globe Awards the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.