Mistress of ceremonies at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Virginie Efira has been happy in a relationship with actor Niels Schneider for several years. She rarely confides in their relationship but sometimes appears by her side.
[Mis à jour le 17 mai 2022 à 14h00] Virginie Efira has been chosen to officiate as mistress of ceremonies at the Cannes Film Festival. The former host turned actress could well appear on the red carpet of the Croisette on the arm of her companion Niels Schneider, with whom she has shared her life since 2018. Niels Schneider is a Franco-Quebec actor born in 1987 and particularly known for his role in Diamant noir, which won him the César for best male hope in 2017. He also played opposite Virginie Efira in Un amour impossible then in Sibyl.
It is not uncommon for a meeting on a set to give birth to an idyll in life. This is what awaited Niels Schneider and Virginie Efira when they agreed to play in the film Un amour impossible directed by Catherine Corsini and released in 2018. In this drama set in the 1950s, Efira plays an office worker who lives an affair with a man from a bourgeois family (Schneider). He refuses to marry outside his social class despite the birth of a little girl. A decade-long fight ensues for the child to at least get his father’s name. It was on the set of this feature film that the two actors got to know each other and forged their relationship.
In the columns of Madame Figaro at the end of March 2020, Virginie Efira evoked the solid couple that she forms with Niels Schneider, ten years her junior. “In our profession, everything is moving, everything is constantly moving. So it seems important to me, even if it is not the main reason why we get together, to have a certain stability. When we are in love, we are stronger.” Virginie Efira and Niels Schneider also have the advantage of doing the same job, another cement of their relationship: “Living with another actor is even incredibly powerful. The periods when we don’t see each other are very short. Left two months for a shoot, at home, that does not exist. We see each other all the time, in fact. We share our experiences of cinema”.
In 2022, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival which she presents, Virginie Efira spoke again of her relationship with Niels Schneider and in particular the way he looks at her. “The way he looks at me and at women pleases me terribly! What touches him will never be stereotyped, always particular. Not all men are looking for a woman who could reassure their virility, fortunately! Being looked at by him is probably what makes me feel good.” Everything is going very well between Niels Schneider and Virginie Efira!
Virginie Efira was born in Brussels on May 5, 1977. A graduate of the National Institute of Performing Arts in 1997, she is a TV host and actress. Her career started on Belgian television, and it was not until 2006 that she stood out to the French public, presenting the “Nouvelle Star”, until 2008.
She poses her voice for many animated films, including Garfield the Film or Hotel Transylvania. In 2007, she shot 2 seasons of the series “Off Prime” where she played her own character. On the theater side, she goes on stage several times, in 2005 in “For her beautiful eyes” or in 2009 in “Nathalie”.
Virginie Efira shot two TV movies between 2010 and 2011, including “A la maison pour Noël”. It was on the big screen that she met with success, in 2009 in “Les Barons” alongside Edouard Baer. 2010 allows it to be installed on screens with “The Whistler“, but also “Love is better for two”, a romantic comedy where she plays Angèle. The same year, she is a female cop in “Kill Me Please”.
After “The Chance of my life” and “My worst nightmare” in 2011, she interpreted herself again in “Hénaut President” in 2012. 2013 was the year of all successes. She is in the cast of five feature films: “Cookie”, “Dead Man Talking”, “20 years apart”, “Les Invincibles”, and finally “Alone” where she plays Marie Drevil, alongside François Cluzet and by Guillaume Canet.
In 2015, she played a mother in the comedy “A family for rent”. She is part of the jury of the 26th Dinard British Film Festival, chaired by Jean Rochefort. We then find her in front of the camera of Paul Verhoeven who directs her in Elle in the same way as Isabelle Huppert. The director then offered him the title role in the film Benedetta. In 2018, she played in one of the comedies of the year: Le Grand Bain. The same year, she met her companion Niels Schneider during the filming of Un amour impossible by Catherine Corsini.
In 2019, Virginie Efira played the title role in Justine Triet’s film Sibyl. She continues the following year with a role in Police by Anne Fontaine but also in Adieu les cons by Albert Dupontel where she plays the role of Suze Trappet opposite the director-actor. The year 2021 sees his reunion with director Paul Verhoeven. After Elle (2016), she played the role of sister Benedetta Carlini in the film Benedetta presented in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2021. In 2022, she played in Waiting for Bojangles by Régis Roinsard and Don Juan by Serge Bozon. The same year, the Cannes Film Festival called on her as mistress of ceremonies.
- Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival 2010: best actress for La Chance de ma vie
- Magritte 2012: audience award
- Magritte 2016: best actress for Victoria
- Q d’Or 2016: best actress
- Festival international du film francophone de Namur 2020: Bayard for the best interpretation for Adieu les cons