Oliver Laxe


Óliver Laxe Coro is a French-born Galician film director, screenwriter and actor of Galician ancestry. Better known for his films You All Are Captains, Mimosas, Fire Will Come and Sirāt. The latter has been nominated for Best International Film and Best Sound at the 98th Academy Awards and earned Laxe the Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Early life

Laxe was born in 1982 in Paris to Galician parents. They met at Bataclan at a dance party for emigrants and worked as concierges in the 16th arrondissement. He grew up in the city in a room shared with his parents and attended the Spanish government-operated school Federico García Lorca until the age of six. Laxe's family comes from Lugo, his mother is from Vilela, Navia de Suarna, while his father is from A Ponte de Outeiro, Castro de Rei. He has a brother, Felipe, who works as a film producer and often collaborates on his films. In 1988, after a picture taken by his father Jacinto, won a prize at the Paris Photography Salon, Laxe's father was hired to work selling photography materials in Manlleu, Catalonia. As the job was not what he expected, the family moved back to Galicia and settled in A Coruña. He attended the and in his teens played for Básquet Coruña's youth team.
After completing his secondary education, he moved to Pontevedra and studied for two years Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Vigo's Faculty of Communication, during which time he lived in the Plaza de la Verdura and discovered arthouse cinema at the Pontevedra Film Club. He would often hang out with the Fine Art students and stage art installations. Disillusioned with his major, he moved to Barcelona where he finally studied filmmaking at the Pompeu Fabra University and did his Erasmus in London where he filmed his first short and final degree project Y las chimeneas decidieron escapar. After graduating in 2006, he moved to Morocco.

Career

His debut feature film, You All Are Captains, premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.
His second feature, Mimosas, was filmed in the Atlas Mountains and screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize. The project was developed through the TorinoFilmLab Interchange programme in 2011.
Returning to his native Galicia, he directed Fire Will Come, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
His fourth feature, Sirāt, premiered in Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize.

Personal life

Aside from his native Galician and Spanish, Laxe is fluent in French. He can also speak Catalan and English. He changed his surname from the castilianized version Lage.
Laxe has been living in Navia de Suarna, Lugo since 2020. The family house, named Casa Quindós after his maternal grandmother, also functions as the headquarters of the Ser Association, which promotes cultural and environmentalist activities in rural Galicia. He divorced from his spouse in 2024, shortly before filming for Sirāt began.

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Other Credits

Awards and nominations

AwardYearCategoryFilmResult
British Independent Film Awards2025Best International Independent FilmSirātNomitated
Cairo International Film Festival2016Golden PyramidMimosasWon
Cannes Film Festival2010FIPRESCI Prize – Quinzaine des réalisateursYou All Are CaptainsWon
Cannes Film Festival2010Caméra d'OrYou All Are CaptainsNomitated
Cannes Film Festival2016Critics' Week Grand PrizeMimosasWon
Cannes Film Festival2019Un Certain Regard Jury PrizeFire Will ComeWon
Cannes Film Festival2025Palme d'OrSirātNomitated
Cannes Film Festival2025Jury PrizeSirātWon
Chicago International Film Festival2025Gold HugoSirātWon
Denver Film Festival2025Krzysztof Kieslowski AwardSirātWon
European Film Awards2026European FilmSirātNomitated
European Film Awards2026European DirectorSirātNomitated
European Film Awards2026European ScreenwriterSirātNomitated
Gaudí Awards2020Best European FilmFire Will ComeWon
Gotham Awards2025Best DirectorSirātNomitated
Goya Awards2020Best DirectorFire Will ComeNomitated
Hainan International Film Festival2019Special Jury PrizeFire Will ComeWon
Lumière Awards2017Best French-Language FilmMimosasNomitated
Seville European Film Festival2016Grand Jury AwardMimosasWon
Taipei Film Festival2017Special Jury PrizeMimosasWon
Thessaloniki Film Festival2019Golden AlexanderFire Will ComeWon