His followup film, Irma Vep (1996), also screened at Cannes, while Sentimental Destinies (2000), Demonlover (2002), and Clean (2004) all officially competed for the Palme d'Or.

Assayas gained acclaim for his dramas Summer Hours (2008), Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), and Personal Shopper (2016); the latter won him the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director.

While working at Cahiers du cinéma, Assayas wrote lovingly about both European and Asian film directors he admired.

In 2009 and 2010, Assayas signed two petitions in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained in Switzerland while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges in the United States and had long been in exile from the U.S.

The first petition argued that the detention would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely".

[7][8][9][10][11] Assayas directed and co-wrote the 2010 French television miniseries Carlos, about the life of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez.

[15] Sils Maria won the Louis Delluc Prize and garnered six César Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

[16][17] In 2016, Assayas won Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival) for Personal Shopper, which also starred Stewart.

[20]In the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll, Assayas listed his ten favorite films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Ludwig, A Man Escaped, Mirror, Napoléon, Playtime, The Rules of the Game, The Tree of Life, and Van Gogh.