Biography

Often works with Fabrizio Rongione, Jérémie Renier and Olivier Gourmet.

Hand-held camera.

Characters often use bikes or bicycles.

Stories revolving around poor characters who are struggling to make money.

Father/son relationships.

Arta Dobroshi, Marion Cotillard and Adèle Haenel are the only non-Belgian actors that he and his brother cast to lead one of their films since Je pense à vous (1993). Cotillard was cast in Deux jours, une nuit (2014) after meeting the brothers on the set of De rouille et d'os (2012), which was co-produced by them. The original plan was to work together in La fille inconnue (2016), which was eventually made years later with Haenel in the lead. Cotillard is the most famous actor that the Dardenne brothers have ever worked with.

All of his films are set in Seraing, Liege, the Belgian town where him and his brother Jean-Pierre Dardenne were born and raised.

Has directed one Oscar-nominated performance: Marion Cotillard in Deux jours, une nuit (2014).

Darren Aronofsky is a fan of the Dardenne brothers and referred to them as "my heroes" in a post in his official Twitter account in 2014, after he attended the premiere of their film Deux jours, une nuit (2014) at the New York Film Festival and posed for a photo next to them. And while promoting Black Swan (2010) in 2010, Aronofsky told Alistair Harkness from The Scotsman that he changed his entire directing style for The Wrestler (2008) after seeing their work for the first time.

Interviewed in "World Directors in Dialogue" by Bert Cardullo (Scarecrow Press, 2011).