Jan Kounen pursued higher education at the École des arts décoratifs in Nice, where he directed his first short films. He earned his national higher diploma in visual expression in 1988. In 1989, he made Gisèle Kérozène, a short film that won the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Festival. This was followed by the medium-length films Vibroboy and Le dernier chaperon rouge. In 1997, he directed his first feature film, Dobermann, adapted from Joël Houssin’s novel. It wasn’t until 2004 that he released his second feature, Blueberry, l’expérience secrète, based on the comics by Gir and Charlier and known for its bold visual style. On this occasion, Kounen reunited with Vincent Cassel, one of his favorite actors. The shamanic visions portrayed in the film draw on his own experiences with psychotropic plants during his travels in South America. The following year, in 2005, he directed the documentary D’autres mondes, which serves as a perfect companion piece to Blueberry, depicting his initiation into traditional medicine among the Shipibo-Conibo people in the Peruvian Amazon. That same year, he made the documentary Darshan, presented in the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. A new adaptation followed in 2007 with 99 francs, based on Frédéric Beigbeder’s bestselling novel. For this satire of the advertising industry, he directed Jean Dujardin, Jocelyn Quivrin, Vahina Giocante, Elisa Tovati, and Patrick Mille. In 2009, his film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky closed the Cannes Film Festival. It is considered Kounen’s most “classic” film, setting aside his usual visual bravura and dynamic camera work in favor of a more restrained, elegant style. In the years that followed, he explored virtual reality with works such as Ayahuasca – Kosmik Journey, presented in 2023 at the Musée du quai Branly as part of the exhibition “Visions chamaniques”, accompanied by his Visions drawings. At the same time, he published several books on the traditional Shipibo plant teachings and a graphic novel titled Doctor Ayahuasca. Jan Kounen served as president of the jury at the Gérardmer International Fantastic Film Festival in 2014. In 2025, he returns to the fantasy genre with L’Homme qui rétrécit, starring Marie-Josée Croze and Jean Dujardin — an adaptation of Richard Matheson’s 1956 novel The Shrinking Man. Jan Kounen – Selected Filmography Feature Films