But it was really at the beginning of the 1980s that Eric Serra had the encounter that would change his life, that of Luc Besson , who then asked him to compose the music for his first film, a short film entitled L'Avant dernier , made in 1981. Eric Serra continued to work with the director and composed, in 1983, the music for Besson's first feature film, Le Dernier combat .

Eric SERRA - President of the juryIntroduced to music at the age of five (acoustic guitar), Eric Serra, son of the poet and singer Claude Serra, was born into the musical world. After his mother died, his father raised him alone and taught him, among other things, music. For his eleventh birthday, he gave him an electric guitar. Later, Eric Serra also learned to play drums, bass, synthesizer and piano. As a self-taught guitarist, he was strongly inspired by Ritchie Blackmore, Alvin Lee, Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin. At the age of fifteen, he formed his first band: FLEP. Eric Serra quickly became a professional musician, at the age of sixteen he played with Youssou N'Dour, Mory Kanté and Jacques Higelin, among others. But it was really at the beginning of the 1980s that Eric Serra had the encounter that would change his life, that of Luc Besson, who then asked him to compose the music for his first film, a short film entitled L'Avant dernier, made in 1981. Eric Serra continued to work with the director and composed, in 1983, the music for Besson's first feature film, Le Dernier combat. The two men shared a great bond and it was quite natural that for each new film, Luc Besson called on his friend. In 1988, Eric Serra composed the music for Le Grand bleu. It was a global success, and some three million copies of the soundtrack were sold worldwide. This was followed by the soundtracks for Nikita in 1990, Atlantis in 1991 and Leon in 1994. In 1995, the composer was contacted by the James Bond team to score GoldenEye. Two years later, he reunited with Luc Besson once again for The Fifth Element. Between 2002 and 2005, he collaborated on various collective projects, including the soundtracks for Wasabi by Gérard Krawczyk, Rollerball by John McTiernan, Jet Lag by Danièle Thompson and The Guardian of the Sacred Manuscript by Paul Hunter. In 2006, Eric Serra, in partnership with Recall Group, founded a new music label dedicated entirely to film music: Recall Music For Films. He also worked on the composition of two new soundtracks for the film Bandidas by Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg and for the animated film Arthur and the Invisibles which marked the return of the Luc Besson / Eric Serra duo. Working almost exclusively with the French filmmaker, Serrat wrote the scores for two sequels to Arthur's adventures, then Adèle Blanc-Sec, The Lady, Lucy and Anna. He also composed that of the action film Braqueurs (co-written by Besson), which marked his last work for fiction to date.