After working at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, Valérie Donzelli began her career as an actress, appearing in films by Anne Fontaine, Gilles Marchand, and Agnès Varda. Not content to simply continue as a successful actress, she went on to direct her first film, Queen of Hearts, in 2009, which was presented at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers, in which she also played the lead role. Her second feature film, Declaration of War, is a moving autobiography that recounts her struggle with Jérémie Elkaim to keep their lives together faced with their child's illness. This film was highly acclaimed by the media and critics, and was selected at Cannes. It also won the Grand Prize at the Cabourg Film Festival, as well as the Jury Prize, Audience Prize, and Bloggers' Prize at the Paris Cinéma Festival and was a major success with audiences, attracting 800,000 spectators. After the release of her film Hand in Hand, starring Valérie Lemercier, in 2012, she presented her latest film, Marguerite et Julien, in the Official Competition at Cannes in 2015.