Summary
French actor Milo Machado-Graner had a trajectory-changing 2023 thanks to his role inAnatomy of a Fall, the first major performance of his still-blooming career. Born on August 24, 2025, Machado-Graner was only 14 when he appeared inthe cast ofAnatomy of a Fall, an Oscar-winning courtroom drama and another example of how foreign films are becoming more widely appreciated by critics and accepted by English-speaking audiences. Machado-Graner is one of the incredible finds to come out of the movie, andhis career is only beginning.
Milo Machado-Graner began his acting career at the age of 12 when he first appeared in a small role in the TV showIn Therapyin 2021. Since then, he has steadily worked in movies and television. Though he was never a major character in anything up untilAnatomy of a Fall, he’s increasingly more significant parts as the years have gone by. Everything Machado-Graner has been in is French and isn’t always the easiest for Americans to find, but if they can, they’ll find more examples of Machado-Graner’s preternatural skill for such a young man.
Why Anatomy Of A Fall Is Rated R
Anatomy of a Fall is a thrilling legal drama that revolves around a complex murder case, containing many themes that justify an R-rating.
Fred Testot
Frank
InHeureusement qu’on s’a, which is roughly translated to “Fortunately, We Have Each Other”, a young boy named Vincent (Oscar Pauleau) lives with his parents and two younger siblings. He looks up to his father, Frank (Fred Testot), but unbeknownst to him, Frank is perpetually unemployed and uninterested in anything beyond football, including supporting his family. When his mother falls into a depression and has to go to the hospital, it’s Vincent who has to take care of his younger siblings.
Milo Machado-Graner plays a minor character, Léo, in this TV movie.It’s not a critical role by any means, but it’s a harrowing and dramatic filmthat contends with themes of abandonment and how children feel about their parents. In that way, it’s not too far off fromAnatomy of a Fall, and it’s possible that the young actor took some lessons for that film fromHeureusement qu’on s’a.
Mikaël Fitoussi
Renart
Alex Hugois a 10-season French crime drama that premiered in 2014 and is ongoing. Each season has between two and four episodes and follows the titular Alex Hugo (Samuel Le Bihan), a former police officer from Marseilles who left the chaos of the city to find tranquility in the French Alps. “La Tendresse”, as he was nicknamed, enjoys his new life of peace but still finds time to help the police in the area solve crimes.
Milo Machado-Graner appears as Tristan Melino in season 8, episode 1, “Mauvais Sang”,a minor character. The series has incredible cinematography and puts its alpine setting to great use and Bihan’s performance is appropriately rugged as the worn-out police officer. The first two seasons ofAlex Hugoare available on Amazon Prime Video in the US, listed under the titleMountain Detective. The show’s likely to get more popular if more seasons go up on the streaming service, which should raise Machado-Graner’s profile.
Virginie Efira
Camille Fouquet
Based on French novelist Olivier Bourdeaut’s novel of the same name,Waiting for Bojanglesis a bit of an odd film, and Milo Machado-Graner only has a small role as a character named Alexandre. However, it once again shows the actor’s comfort in dramatic movies, with subject matter that’s difficult for even older viewers to grasp, much less young ones. The film follows Georges (Romain Duris) and Camille (Virginie Efira) as they fall in love and start a family together when they have Gary (Solàn Machado-Graner).Milo Machado-Graner plays the minor role of Alexandre.
All the while, Camille and Georges they never forget to dance, which they do often throughout the film, often for long stretches at a time. At first, this quirkiness and eccentricity are presented as fun, but it becomes clear that Camille has a mental illness she is ignoring and eventually must go to a psychiatric hospital.Depicting mental illness in moviesis not an easy task, butWaiting for Bojanglesdrops the ball with Camille’s illness being played for laughs among other problematic issues. Machado-Graner’sAnatomy of a Falldoes a far better job of addressing issues like depression.
Solàn and Milo Machado-Graner are brothers.
Elsa Lepoivre
Charlotte Dayan
In Therapystars Frédéric Pierrot as Philippe Dayan, a psychoanalyst who has sessions with a rotating cast of clients all with different experiences, histories, and problems that he must balance against his own crises. The two-season series begins on the evening of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks which killed 130 people in the city (viaRTE). While the series doesn’t directly deal with the attacks, their shadow looms over the show.
Milo Machado-Graner has a small recurring role as Adam Dayan, appearing in three episodes of season 1, episodes 3, 19, and 22.
Milo Machado-Graner has a small recurring role as Adam Dayan, appearing in season 1, episodes 3, 19, and 22. Pierrot is the star of the series and delivers an incredible performance of a beleaguered therapist trying to deal with his usual patients and his own trauma from the attack. This isthe first role of Machado-Graner’s career. Although it’s a small one, it’s an indication of the type of serious dramas and performances he would remain interested in.
François Damiens
Tony Boghassian
There have not been too many COVID-19 movies. The onslaught of them may still be a few years away, when the more painful memories start to dissipate. However, Dany Boon got in on the theme early withStuck on You, a slice-of-life comedy set during a not-so-normal time in world history. In the film, a quirky group of French residents are confined to their apartment building during the pandemic and have to adjust to their new lives and suddenly being in close proximity with family and friends.
It’s a comic and innocent role for Machado-Graner and one that shows a little more of his range, even if it’s for only a few scenes.
Tony (Francois Damiens) lives in the penthouse of the building with his teen daughter Victoire (Eve Margnat) and young son Basile (Milo Machado-Graner). It’s an ensemble story but Machado-Graner gets some key lines in the film. His voiceover in one scene describes his father’s feelings about COVID-19, which are not exactly humanitarian. It’sa comic and innocent role for Machado-Graner and one that shows a little more of his range, even if it’s for only a few scenes.
Paul Dédalus age 6
Mathieu Amalric
Adult Paul Dédalus
Filmlovers!is a cheerful docufiction drama about Paul Dédalus, played by Louis Birman at age 6, Milo Machado-Graner at age 16, and Mathieu Amalric as an adult. In the movies, a man known only as “The Filmmaker” (Mathieu Amalric) tracks the life of the fictional Paul Dédalus, a film lover and avatar for director Arnaud Desplechin. Through a series of vignettes, filmmaking and the business of movies are presented in all its glory with over 50 different films cited or showcased throughout.
As a teenager, Machado-Graner plays Paul when the young man is truly beginning to understand cinema.He imbues the character with wonder and determination without ever making him feel too precocious. The whole movie manages to be an auteur cinema essay without feeling too full of itself. Machado-Graner’s excellent physical acting as he handles and learns how to use film equipment gives the character a third dimension.
Swann Arlaud
Maître Vincent Renzi
InAnatomy of a Fall, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) is working in her isolated mountain chalet with her husband, Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), in the attic, and Sandra’s visually impaired son Daniel Maleski (Milo Machado-Graner) downstairs. When Daniel returns from a walk, he finds Samuel dead in the snow. So begins a tense, thought-provoking drama as Sandra is accused of murdering her husband. The film earned five Oscar nominations and won for Best Orignal Screenplay.
It could be argued thatMachado-Graner should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His turn as the frightened, unsure Daniel is remarkable. Machado-Graner embodies his character, and sometimes it doesn’t even seem as if he’s acting. He’s subtle and hard to read and also has the gravitas for the big courtroom scenes. Bythe end ofAnatomy of a Fall, it’s never clear what Daniel’s real thoughts are.
The director, Justine Triet, toldThe Wrapabout Machado-Graner’s audition,
“You have heard the story about when Steven Spielberg was casting for the main kid in E.T. This audition with Milo was quite similar to that story.”
This reference is to Henry Thomas' audition for the role of Elliott, which blew Spielberg away. It wasn’t easy to find him, however. Triet said,
“I started looking in March 2021. At first we were searching only for blind and visually impaired kids, but we didn’t find anyone who was perfect for the role.”
They opened the audition to sighted children as well, which is when Machado-Graner came along, but Triet dismissed him immediately. She thought he didn’t look anything like the blonde-haired Hüller. Then her partner and co-screenwriter Arthur Harari brought her Machado-Graner’s audition tape,
“But one day, I was just laying in bed and checking emails and Arthur came to me and he said, ‘Look at this kid’s tape, but actually don’t look. Just listen to the sound of his voice.’ The way that Milo was talking was different. It didn’t sound like a little kid, and I really liked that about him.”
After that, she called the producers and said she had found her Daniel Maleski, remembering the audition tape of Steven Spielberg telling Henry Thomas, “OK kid, you got the job.“Anatomy of a Fallis the most significant role ofMilo Machado-Graner’scareer thus far, but it certainly won’t be the last.
Anatomy of a Fall
Cast
Anatomy of a Fall is a crime-drama film by director Justine Triet and made its initial debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Following the death of successful writer Sandra’s husband Samuel in the French Alps, she is arrested and accused of murder. With their blind son, Daniel, the only witness to Samuel’s death, Sandra must face nearly impossible odds to prove her innocence.
