Acting
Sylvie Testud
Biography
Sylvie Testud was born on January 17, 1971 in Lyon. Her parents separated when she was two years old. She spent her youth in the Lyon district of Croix-Rousse, raised by her mother, an accountant. In high school, she learned Chinese. Very early fascinated by the cinema, the young girl identifies in particular with the complexed teenager character embodied by Charlotte Gainsbourg in L'Effrontée. Having moved to Paris to study history, she soon embarked on acting by joining the free class at Cours Florent and then the Conservatory, where her teachers were Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel. She made her first screen appearance in 1994 in Couples et amants. She decided to become an actress during her youth, after having admired actresses in films. She then took acting lessons in Lyon with the actor and director Christian Taponard. In 1989, she moved to Paris to study history, as well as drama lessons in free classes at Cours Florent, then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art for three years, with Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel for teachers. In the early 1990s, she obtained her first small roles in the cinema, then in feature films such as The Story of the Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed by Philippe Harel (1994), Le Plus Bel Age..., by Didier Haudepin (1995) or even Love, etc. by Marion Vernoux (1996). In 1997, Sylvie Testud experienced her first great success at the cinema in Germany with the film Beyond Silence by Caroline Link, for which she learned German, the clarinet and sign language. She is rewarded as best actress by the German Film Prize (the equivalent of the César for best actress). In 1998, she played her first major role in French cinema and enjoyed great success in France with the role of Béa in Karnaval, the first feature film by Thomas Vincent, for which she was nominated for the César for best female hope and received the Michael Simon Prize. She then began an important acting career with a preference for auteur cinema. In 2000, her performance in La Captive by Chantal Akerman (adaptation of the novel La Prisonnière by Marcel Proust) earned her a nomination as best actress at the European Film Prize. In 2001, she obtained, for her second nomination, the César for best female hope for the remarkable interpretation of Christine Papin, one of the Papin sisters, in Les Blessures assassines by Jean-Pierre Denis, based on a news item from 1933.
Movies with Sylvie Testud
Suspiria
2018
LOL 2.0: Anne’s Golden Hour
2026
Vengeance
2009
Too Close to the Sun
2015
La Vie en Rose
2007
The Round Up
2010
The Visitors: Bastille Day
2016
Final Portrait
2017
Meet the Malawas
2019
Tamara
2016
24 Days
2014
Lucky Luke
2009
Wedding Unplanned
2017
Wide Load
2019
For a Woman
2013
Disclaimer
2019
Cocorico 2
2026
Sagan
2008
Labyrinth
2003
96 heures
2014
Arrête ton cinéma !
2016
A New Girl in Paris!
2018
Mumu
2010
Rebellion
2011
Cocorico
2024
Legacy
2006
Kings for a Day
2018
Stolen Tangos
2002
The Captive
2000
In Heaven
1999
Simone: Woman of the Century
2022
Max
2013
Fan Club
2018
Annaluise & Anton
1999
Des mains en or
2023
À votre bon cœur, mesdames
2013
Sentiments provisoires
2010
Gad Elmaleh - Le Big Show
2015
French Women
2014
Bad Connection
2000
Everyman's Feast
2002
Two Women
2014
Beyond Silence
1996
Where Souls Go
2025
Quand sort la recluse
2019
Victoire
2004
A Day in the Life of French Cinema
2002
Flashback
2021
Karnaval
1999
Champagne !
2022
Those Were the Days
1995
The Two of Them
2024
Fire in Paradise
1997
Fear and Trembling
2003
Jíkuri. Journey to the Land of the Tarahumara
2024
Marinette
2023
The Exchange Student
2016
Only Girls
2003
Julies Geist
2001
Life Kills Me
2002
The Château
2001
Spiderwebhouse
2015
Murderous Maids
2000
Eat, for This Is My Body
2007
Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone
2014
A Loving Father
2002
Lourdes
2009
Tout pour l'oseille
2004
The Misadventures of Margaret
1998
The Story of a Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed
1994
A Song For Mama
2013
I’m Going Home
2001
I Love You Coiffure
2020
The Night Clerk
2011
Scénarios sur la drogue
2000
Cause toujours !
2004
Tomorrow We Move
2004
Les Déferlantes
2013
Words in Blue
2005
Sentimental Education
1998
Ceux qui dansent sur la tête
2014
Making of Tomorrow We Move
2004
My Name Is Hmmm...
2013
A Happy Man
2009
Tout un poème
La vie est à nous !
2005
L'Amour, la Mort, les Fringues
2011
The Dark Room
2000
La France
2007
The Grand Restaurant III
2021
Thanks to my Friends
2015
The Grand Restaurant IV
2022
Mörderische Stille
2017
Deux gouttes d'eau
2018
Maman, ne me laisse pas m'endormir
2022
The Idiot
2008
The Vanishing Point
2007
Les acteurs anonymes
2001
Marée haute
1999
Marie's Song
1994
Roxana's Hands
2013
The Rebel, Louise Michel
2010
Sisters
2009
A Moment of Happiness
2002
Proust and Signs: On Chantal Akerman's "La Captive"
2025
Tout le monde savait
2022
Women or Children First
2002
L'Heureux Stratagème
2021
Can't Say No
2009
Dead Man's Memories
2003
Éternelles
1994
Arthur Honegger - Jeanne D'Arc Au Bucher
2007
Defiant Souls
2019
TV Shows with Sylvie Testud
C à vous
2009
German Film Award
1951
Capitaine Marleau
2015
28 minutes
2012
On n'est pas couché
2006
The Unexpected Getaway
2012
Kemps
2019
The Unexpected Getaway
2022
Un monde, un regard
2021
Panique dans l'oreillette
2008
Maximilian and Marie De Bourgogne
2017
Rendez-vous in an Unknown Land
2004
Eden
2019
Knok
2024
Deutsch-Les-Landes
2018
Runaway
2021
Fear by the Lake
2020
Club Première
2022
A Case for Kin
2023
What Pauline Is Not Telling You
2022
Sur la dalle
2024
Quand sort la recluse
2019