Sylvie Testud
Acting • Born 1971-01-17
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.
Filmography
135 credits
Fan Club
Movie • 2018
Anna
Beyond Silence
Movie • 1996
Lara
La Vie en Rose
Movie • 2007
Simone 'Mômone' Berteaut
Annaluise & Anton
Movie • 1999
Laurence
Scénarios sur la drogue
Movie • 2000
Segment "Lucie"
Flashback
Movie • 2021
Olympe de Gouges
Fear and Trembling
Movie • 2003
Amélie
Labyrinth
Movie • 2003
Claude
L'Heureux Stratagème
Movie • 2021
La Comtesse
A Happy Man
Movie • 2009
Catherine
Lucky Luke
Movie • 2009
Calamity Jane
The Round Up
Movie • 2010
Bella Zygler
Lourdes
Movie • 2009
Christine
Sagan
Movie • 2008
Françoise Quoirez dite Sagan
Marée haute
Movie • 1999
The Château
Movie • 2001
Isabelle
The Vanishing Point
Movie • 2007
Lucie Audibert
Sisters
Movie • 2009
Sybille adulte
Murderous Maids
Movie • 2000
Christine Papin
Mumu
Movie • 2010
Mumu
The Captive
Movie • 2000
Ariane
A Moment of Happiness
Movie • 2002
L'institutrice
Vengeance
Movie • 2009
Irene Costello
Life Kills Me
Movie • 2002
Myriam
Tout pour l'oseille
Movie • 2004
Prune
The Night Clerk
Movie • 2011
Sylvie Poncet
Champagne !
Movie • 2022
Joanna
Only Girls
Movie • 2003
Tina
La France
Movie • 2007
Camille
Rebellion
Movie • 2011
Chantal Legorjus
La vie est à nous !
Movie • 2005
Louise Delhomme
Cause toujours !
Movie • 2004
Léa
Women or Children First
Movie • 2002
Virginie
A Loving Father
Movie • 2002
Virginia
Tomorrow We Move
Movie • 2004
Charlotte
Victoire
Movie • 2004
Victoire
The Rebel, Louise Michel
Movie • 2010
Louise Michel
Eat, for This Is My Body
Movie • 2007
Madame
The Dark Room
Movie • 2000
Azalaïs
Words in Blue
Movie • 2005
Clara
Karnaval
Movie • 1999
Béa
Marinette
Movie • 2023
Régine Pierre, Saint-Memmie coach
Legacy
Movie • 2006
Patricia
A Song For Mama
Movie • 2013
Sylvie
Max
Movie • 2013
Nina
Dead Man's Memories
Movie • 2003
Das Mädchen
Stolen Tangos
Movie • 2002
Alice / Paula
Cocorico
Movie • 2024
Nicole Martin
For a Woman
Movie • 2013
Anne
Les Déferlantes
Movie • 2013
Louise
My Name Is Hmmm...
Movie • 2013
La mère de Céline
Roxana's Hands
Movie • 2013
Roxana Orlac
Fire in Paradise
Movie • 1997
Esther
96 heures
Movie • 2014
Marion Reynaud
Des mains en or
Movie • 2023
Rose
Tout un poème
Movie
Maman, ne me laisse pas m'endormir
Movie • 2022
Sophie
French Women
Movie • 2014
Sam
Everyman's Feast
Movie • 2002
Sophie
Papa Was Not a Rolling Stone
Movie • 2014
Nadiège
Ceux qui dansent sur la tête
Movie • 2014
Catherine
The Idiot
Movie • 2008
Darya Alexeyevna
Two Women
Movie • 2014
Elisaveta Bogdanovna
Spiderwebhouse
Movie • 2015
Sabine
Elles deux
Movie • 2024
Sandrine
The Story of a Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed
Movie • 1994
Girl at party offering food
24 Days
Movie • 2014
Brigitte Farell
The Misadventures of Margaret
Movie • 1998
Young Nun
The Visitors: Bastille Day
Movie • 2016
Charlotte de Robespierre
The Grand Restaurant IV
Movie • 2022
Les acteurs anonymes
Movie • 2001
Self (uncredited)
Jíkuri. Journey to the Land of the Tarahumara
Movie • 2024
Mathilde
Arrête ton cinéma !
Movie • 2016
Sybille
Too Close to the Sun
Movie • 2015
Sophie Picard
Julies Geist
Movie • 2001
Julia
I’m Going Home
Movie • 2001
Ariel
The Exchange Student
Movie • 2016
Eloïse
Tamara
Movie • 2016
Amandine
Making of Tomorrow We Move
Movie • 2004
Self / Charlotte
Suspiria
Movie • 2018
Miss Griffith
Thanks to my Friends
Movie • 2015
Stéphane Brunge
Can't Say No
Movie • 2009
Adèle
Mörderische Stille
Movie • 2017
Elena
Marie's Song
Movie • 1994
Marie
Wedding Unplanned
Movie • 2017
Clarisse
Final Portrait
Movie • 2017
Annette Giacometti
Kings for a Day
Movie • 2018
Val
A New Girl in Paris!
Movie • 2018
Amandine
Bad Connection
Movie • 2000
Laurence
L'Amour, la Mort, les Fringues
Movie • 2011
Gad Elmaleh - Le Big Show
Movie • 2015
Self
Disclaimer
Movie • 2019
Maïté
Deux gouttes d'eau
Movie • 2018
Valérie Laforge
Arthur Honegger - Jeanne D'Arc Au Bucher
Movie • 2007
Jeanne d'Arc
Wide Load
Movie • 2019
Jennifer
Defiant Souls
Movie • 2019
Enriqueta Faber / Enrique Faber
Quand sort la recluse
Movie • 2019
le lieutenant Froissy
À votre bon cœur, mesdames
Movie • 2013
Lolita
Meet the Malawas
Movie • 2019
Nathalie Dulac
Sentiments provisoires
Movie • 2010
Hélène
Éternelles
Movie • 1994
Nathalie
In Heaven
Movie • 1999
Valeska
Sentimental Education
Movie • 1998
Julia
I Love You Coiffure
Movie • 2020
Geneviève (segment "L'Addition")
Those Were the Days
Movie • 1995
Sylvie
The Grand Restaurant III
Movie • 2021
The nymphomaniac's friend
Simone: Woman of the Century
Movie • 2022
Marceline Rozenberg (1968 - 1979)
Where Souls Go
Movie • 2025
Stéphanie
A Day in the Life of French Cinema
Movie • 2002
Self
Tout le monde savait
Movie • 2022
Valérie Bacot
Cocorico 2
Movie • 2026
Nicole Martin
Proust and Signs: On Chantal Akerman's "La Captive"
Movie • 2025
archive image
LOL 2.0: Anne’s Golden Hour
Movie • 2026
Sylvie
C à vous
TV • 2009
Self
Runaway
TV • 2021
Isabelle
The Unexpected Getaway
TV • 2012
Self
What Pauline Is Not Telling You
TV • 2022
major de gendarmerie Marie Hermann
28 minutes
TV • 2012
Self
Maximilian and Marie De Bourgogne
TV • 2017
Charlotte de Savoye
Kemps
TV • 2019
Self
Deutsch-Les-Landes
TV • 2018
Odile
A Case for Kin
TV • 2023
Capitaine Caroline Flament
German Film Award
TV • 1951
Self
Eden
TV • 2019
Hélène
Club Première
TV • 2022
Self - Guest
Knok
TV • 2024
Blanche
Capitaine Marleau
TV • 2015
Salomé Revel
Fear by the Lake
TV • 2020
Alice Wagner
Panique dans l'oreillette
TV • 2008
Self
Rendez-vous in an Unknown Land
TV • 2004
Self
Sur la dalle
TV • 2024
Froissy
On n'est pas couché
TV • 2006
Self - Guest
C à vous
TV • 2009
Self - Guest
The Unexpected Getaway
TV • 2022
Self
Un monde, un regard
TV • 2021