Juliette Binoche The film was a critical and commercial failure. "Three Colors: Blue", "The Horseman on the Roof" and "A Couch in New York" all gave Binoche the opportunity to work with prestigious directors she had turned down during the prolonged shoot of "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf". Her next role, in "The English Patient" reinforced her position as an international movie star. The film, based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Anthony Minghella, was a worldwide hit. Produced by Saul Zaentz, producer of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", the film reunited Juliette Binoche with Ralph Fiennes, Heathcliff to her
Kathryn Bigelow Festival in May 2009, and theatrically released in the US in June 2009. It qualified for the 2010 Oscars as it did not premiere in an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles until mid-2009. Set in post-invasion Iraq, the film received "universal acclaim" (according to Metacritic) and a 97% "fresh" rating from the critics aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes. The film stars Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie, with cameos by Guy Pearce, David Morse and Ralph Fiennes. She won the Directors Guild of America award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (becoming the first woman to win the award)