From 1952, Deray worked as assistant to a number of directors, including Luis Buñuel, Gilles Grangier, Jules Dassin, and Jean Boyer.

[4] Deray's reputation was established with the 1969 film La Piscine which starred Romy Schneider and Alain Delon.

[4] La Piscine was not distributed widely outside France, but the follow-up gave Deray his biggest international hit with Borsalino, a film starring Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo about two small-time gangsters who murder their way to the top in bustling 1930s Marseilles.

[1] On his death, French President Jacques Chirac praised Deray, noting his "innate sense of storytelling and action" and adding that "France has lost one of its most talented filmmakers.

[7][8] Among the first laureates are 36 Quai des Orfèvres by Olivier Marchal, The Beat That My Heart Skipped by Jacques Audiard, Tell No One by Guillaume Canet, The Second Wind by Alain Corneau, and later Polisse by Maïwenn (2012).