
Directing
Nicolas Saada
Born 1965-09-06 · Paris, France
Nicolas Saada (born September 5, 1965) is a French screenwriter, director, producer, and journalist. Saada is renowned for his radio show Nova fait son cinéma, dedicated to film music, which he hosted between 1993 and 2007 on Radio Nova in Paris. He was also program director for Arte's fiction unit between 1992 and 1998, alongside Pierre Chevalier, and worked on over a hundred television films. As a journalist for Cahiers du cinéma (1988-2000), he specialized for many years in American and Asian cinema. In 1999, he co-wrote his first screenplay for a film by Pierre Salvadori, Les Marchands de sable. This was followed by other collaborations with Arnaud Desplechin, among others. In 2004, he directed his first short film, Les Parallèles, which was nominated for a César Award for Best Short Film in 2005. Then in 2009, his first feature film, Spy(s), was released, nominated the same year for the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film and the following year for the César Award for Best First Film. In 2012, he shot the short film Aujourd'hui with Bérénice Bejo and, in a brief appearance, Frederick Wiseman. In 2015, his second feature film, Taj Mahal, shot in India and starring young actress Stacy Martin, was released. The film was selected for the Telluride, Venice, and Ghent Film Festivals.
Acting credits
7.0The staff of an American magazine based in France puts out its last issue, with stories featuring an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student riots, and a kidnapping resolved by a chef.
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
2021
5.9A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
CQ
2001
7.9Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.
Critic
2008
5.3After 30-year-old French war reporter Gabriel Dahan is taken hostage in Syria, he heads to India following months in captivity.
Maya
2018
NRSeijun Suzuki became a cinema legend in the 1960s with a handful of pop-art films. So how can you make a portrait of this iconoclastic director without also adopting a 'style to kill' documentary convention, as well as testimonies from a variety of leading figures in contemporary Japanese and international filmmakers.
Twist & Shoot: Mister Suzuki
2026
7.7French documentary on the films of John Carpenter
Big John
2006
NRThe life and career of screen siren, Brigitte Bardot.
Brigitte Bardot: The Icon of France
2009
NRA documentary about the life and career of film director Ernst Lubitsch
Lubitsch, le patron
2010
Documentary about François Truffaut who is one of the most respected directors in the history of cinema.
Looking for Truffaut
2009
6.0A documentary about the making of Lost in Translation.
Once Upon a Time... Lost in Translation
2015
Behind the camera
5.9Vincent, a police officer, and his partner Manuel steal a large amount of cocaine from José Marciano, a ruthless crime lord who is quick to seek revenge, endangering Vincent's life, career and family.
Sleepless Night
2011
5.3As the daring thief Arsène Lupin ransacks the homes of wealthy Parisians, the police, with a secret weapon in their arsenal, attempt to ferret him out.
Arsène Lupin
2004
5.3Nat drives on the interstate with his two young daughters in the back seats, when a car drives by and an unknown guy shoots one of his daughters dead for no reason. Nat's life is shattered. He becomes obsessed with finding the killers, assaults two men, kills one, goes to jail, is left by his wife, grows old estranged from his other daughter. We see the action first through Nat's eyes, then via Brautigan, the cop in charge of the investigation, and finally from the perspective of the remaining daughter Margo. The deconstructed narrative echoes the chaos within Nat and emphasizes the fact that the characters are out of tune with one another, which is the meaning of the original title.
Dissonances
2004
Paris, today. A corrupt businessman, Duchey, returns to France to confront the justice of his country. But his return to his homeland will cause the turmoil of three individuals.
Les parallèles
2004
Paris, today. A corrupt businessman, Duchey, returns to France to confront the justice of his country. But his return to his homeland will cause the turmoil of three individuals.
Les parallèles
2004
5.1Russian front, winter 1943. Soldier Arturo Andrade and Sergeant Fernando Espinosa are commissioned to investigate a mysterious murder while the Spanish Blue Division of the German Army endures the fierce counterattack of the Red Army.
Frozen Silence
2012
Simon, a disillusioned developer, carries a secret that could dismantle modern society: a code capable of remote neural hijacking. Hunted by his former architects, he seeks sanctuary within the echoing halls of the Musée d’Orsay—one of Paris’s final "safe zones" in a world of total digital surveillance. There, among the relics of the past, he must join a clandestine resistance to protect the future of human autonomy.
Danger
2026
Simon, a disillusioned developer, carries a secret that could dismantle modern society: a code capable of remote neural hijacking. Hunted by his former architects, he seeks sanctuary within the echoing halls of the Musée d’Orsay—one of Paris’s final "safe zones" in a world of total digital surveillance. There, among the relics of the past, he must join a clandestine resistance to protect the future of human autonomy.
Danger
2026
5.4In London, an airport baggage handler is forced by French and British intelligence agents to seduce the wife of a businessman with ties to Syrian terrorists.
Spy(ies)
2009
5.4In London, an airport baggage handler is forced by French and British intelligence agents to seduce the wife of a businessman with ties to Syrian terrorists.
Spy(ies)
2009
7.3A troupe of actors rehearse a play. In the play-within-the-film, an ambitious son and his distant father fight for control of an armaments firm and are pushed to eventual destruction by dangerous outside forces and traitorous aides.
Playing 'In the Company of Men'
2003
5.2One evening, while her parents go out for dinner, 18-year-old Louise, alone in her hotel room at Taj Mahal Mumbai, hears strange noises out in the corridor. Within minutes, she realises that a terrorist attack is underway. Her only connection to the outside world is her cell phone, which allows her to maintain contact with her father, who is desperately trying to reach her from the other side of a city that has been plunged into chaos. Louise must spend a long night alone in the face of danger. She will never be the same again.
Taj Mahal
2015
5.2One evening, while her parents go out for dinner, 18-year-old Louise, alone in her hotel room at Taj Mahal Mumbai, hears strange noises out in the corridor. Within minutes, she realises that a terrorist attack is underway. Her only connection to the outside world is her cell phone, which allows her to maintain contact with her father, who is desperately trying to reach her from the other side of a city that has been plunged into chaos. Louise must spend a long night alone in the face of danger. She will never be the same again.
Taj Mahal
2015
A short film by Nicolas Saada.
Aujourd'hui
2012
A short film by Nicolas Saada.
Aujourd'hui
2012
6.8Alain runs Le Detour, a small cafe in Paris where Antoine works. Antoine is reunited with his sister Marie when she's released from prison; they are very close, perhaps abnormally so, but she's not aware that Antoine has fallen into cahoots with Stephane, who works as a waiter at another cafe. Damien, a local businessman, is pressuring Alain to expand Le Detour, and cut his nephew Xavier in for a percentage as a manager. While Alain waffles on Damien's proposal, Xavier offers Antoine a chance to make some money under the table by delivering some drugs to a cadre of dealers. Antoine makes the drop and picks up the payment, but runs off with the money rather than bringing it back to Xavier, which proves to have tragic consequences for Antoine and his friends.
The Sandmen
2000
A fugitive finds himself unwittingly invited to a political meeting. Cornered and hunted, he improvises as a charismatic leader for one night.
La Quarantième Marche
2011
The documentary travels between Paris, London, New York and Los Angeles to meet Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, John Barry and Michel Legrand, four composers who revolutionized the relationship between music and image. Also among the interviewees are the electronic duo of Air, Mike Patton and David Holmes, contemporary musicians whose work is strongly influenced by the masters of the 1960s and 1970s, a certain worldview and pop culture of the golden age of film music 1965 - 1975.
The Golden Age of Music Film (1965-1975)
2009