Paul Kircher

Paul Kircher
Kircher at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in 2024
Born	(2001-12-30) 30 December 2001 (age 22) Paris, France
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2020–present
Parents	Jérôme Kircher (father) Irène Jacob (mother)
Relatives	Samuel Kircher (brother) Maurice Jacob (grandfather)

Paul Kircher (French: [pɔl kiʁʃɛʁ]; born 30 December 2001) is a French actor. The eldest son of actors Irène Jacob and Jérôme Kircher, he is known for his starring roles in the drama film Winter Boy (2022) and the adventure film The Animal Kingdom (2023). Both roles earned him nominations for the César Award for Most Promising Actor. For starring in the coming-of-age drama film And Their Children After Them (2024), he won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor.

Paul Kircher was born in Paris on 30 December 2001.^[1][2] He is the eldest son of actors Irène Jacob and Jérôme Kircher. His grandfather was the phyisicist Maurice Jacob (1933–2007). He grew up in Paris with his brother Samuel, who is three years his junior and is also an actor. They both attended school in the 18th arrondissement.^[3] Irène Jacob and Jérôme Kircher both often acted together and took their sons on tours.^[4]

Originally, Kircher did not want to follow in his parents footsteps by stepping into the acting business, an industry which initially "scared him a bit". Parallel to attending high school, he took lessons at a music school in Paris and sang in various rock bands. After graduating from high school, he began studying geography and economics^[5] at Paris Diderot University.^[6] At the same time, he completed theater internships with Jordan Beswick, who is a professor at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and at the Manufacture des Abbesses in Paris.^[5]

Kircher made his feature film debut in 2020 in the teen comedy How to Make Out (T'as pécho?) directed by Adeline Picault. In the film, he took on the lead role of 15-year-old Arthur, whose love for Ouassima (portrayed by Inès d'Assomption) is unrequited. He then gathers a group of unsuccessful male classmates to give them tips on flirting with girls. Kircher had found out about the casting from a friend and spontaneously auditioned. The part led Kircher to another major role, in the 2021 romantic comedy film A Little Lesson in Love (Petite leçon d'amour), which starred Laetitia Dosch and Pierre Deladonchamps as lovers.^[7]

Kircher's breakthrough as a film actor was the award-winning title role in Christophe Honoré's semi-autobiographical drama Winter Boy (Le Lycéen) Kircher portrays Lucas Ronis, a 17-year-old gay teenager coping with the sudden and unexpected death of his father in an accident that may or may not have been suicide. To help her spiraling son, Isabelle (Juliet Binoche) sends Lucas to Paris for a week with his older brother Quentin (Vincent Lacoste). Honoré had chosen Kircher from hundreds of actors^[5] and would later praise him for his "overwhelming sensitivity".^[7] In preparation, he gave the actor, among other things, the novel The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White to read.^[8] For his portrayal of Lucas, Kircher won the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival and received nominations for the César Award for Most Promising Actor and the Lumières Award for Best Male Revelation.^[9][10][11]

Following the success of Winter Boy, Kircher was originally slated to play the male lead in Catherine Breillat's erotic drama Last Summer (L'Été dernier). However, the shooting was delayed, after which the actor was considered too old for the part intended for him. He then recommended his brother Samuel, who was not active in cinema, to the director, who ultimately awarded him the role.^[12] Kircher was instead cast in a main role alongside Romain Duris and Adèle Exarchopoulos in Thomas Cailley's science fiction adventure film The Animal Kingdom (Le Règne animal),^[13] which screened as the opening film of the Un Certain Regard section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.^[14]

Kircher next played the lead role in Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma's And Their Children After Them (Leurs enfants après eux), an adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu's novel of the same name.^[15][16][17] The film premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival,^[18][19] with Kircher portraying Anthony, a 14-year-old boy navigating the socio-economic and racial tensions in the fictional town of Heillange during the 1990s.^[20] Guy Lodge from Variety noted Kircher's portrayal as 'cocky' and 'charismatic,' embodying the reckless bravado of a teenager grappling with the limitations of his small-town life.^[21] His performance earned him the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor.^[22]

He is set to make his theater debut in January 2025, portraying French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès in Les Idoles, at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin.^[23] Kircher will next star in Cédric Klapisch's La Venue de l'avenir,^[24] in Phuong Mai Nguyen's animated feature, In Waves, based on the graphic novel of the same name by AJ Dungo,^[25] and in Hubert Charuel's Météors.^[26]

• Paul Kircher at AlloCiné (in French)
• Paul Kircher at IMDb