Born in Ghent in 1991, Lukas Dhont attended film school in Brussels and made short films before his debut Girl (2018), the story of a trans teenage ballerina, which won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes but was criticised by some trans critics for its casting. Close (2022), about two thirteen-year-old boys whose close friendship is broken, won the Grand Prix at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar. He was awarded the LUX audience award for it. Dhont's films deal with adolescence, gender and tenderness.