Born in France, I grow up abroad, in Italy and Canada. After a mountain accident immobillizes me for several months as a teenager, I write my first screenplay for a short film.
I win a screenplay competition and shoot my first short film in 16 mm, at the age of sixteen. This first experience convinces me to devote myself to my passion: I decide to become a filmmaker.
I start working on shooting sets as a trainee. Passionate about my work, I am quickly promoted to assistant director, then second unit director. During ten years, I build my experience working on feature and advertising films alongside the greatest French directors of the decade: Matthieu Kassovitz, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Patrice Leconte, Michel Gondry, Jean-Paul Goude …
This journey peaks with my collaboration to the epic filming of two of the most ambitious French feature films ever made, Leos Carax‘s passionate THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE starring Juliette Binoche, and Régis Wargnier‘s colonial saga INDOCHINE starring Catherine Deneuve, 1992 Hollywood Academy Award Winner for Best Motion Picture in a Foreign Language.
In between major feature productions, I shoot three new short films, putting my professional experience to good use: THE ENEMY, MIDNIGHT, and N ° 3. Each are selected in multiple international festivals and receive numerous awards .
THE ENEMY, starring Denis Lavant, is selected in over 60 film festivals around the world and wins major awards in Clermont-Ferrand, Djakarta, Larissa, Athens, Oslo, Rome, New York, Valladolid, Stockholm, London, Tokyo, Edimburg…
These accomplishments get me noticed as a promising new director, and I am hired to direct my first television series. My debut is Gaumont’s MANATEA, a « youth adventure » series entirely shot in French Polynesia, in Moorea and Tahiti.
Looking for young, visually ambitious directors to shoot genre movies for their « Bee Movies » collection produced in partnership with CANAL +, FIDÉLITÉ PRODUCTIONS and MARS FILMS hear about my work…
That’s how I get to write and direct my first feature film: REQUIEM, a thriller starring Patrick Dell’Isola and Moussa Maaskri. Released over a hundred screens in France then in 35 countries across the world, it is selected by the Sitges International Film Festival, the Brussels Fantastica Film Festival and the Mauvais Genre Film Festival in La Réunion in various categories.
Ten years of TV movies and scripted TV series episodes will follow, as I become one of the most prolific directors of French scripted television, notably on France’s leading network TF1, with SAINT-TROPEZ, COMMISSIONER MOULIN, SAUVEUR GIORDANO, WOMEN OF LAW, R.I.S. SCIENTIFIC POLICE …
Each prime-time TV show I direct for TF1 rates among the network's all-time highest ratings: COMMISSIONER MOULIN (8.7 million viewers), SAUVEUR GIORDANO (9,19 million, best rating of the series since its creation), R.I.S. (10.07 million in 2006), WOMEN OF LAW (7.85 million).
In between shooting TV shows, I develop my second feature film with French powerhouse producer Luc Besson’s EUROPACORP studio (producer of LUCY, TRANSPORTER, TAKEN, VALERIAN…)
COURSIER (International title : PARIS EXPRESS) is a fast-paced action/comedy on wheels starring Michaël Youn and Géraldine Nakache. Released in 2010 in 300 cinemas in France, the film is then distributed internationally in over 30 countries. It reaches N°8 at the national box office the week of its release over three hundred screens in France, lands N°6 at the national box office in China, and is selected at the Singapore Film Festival to represent France.
Écran Total’s « Special Cannes 2012 issue » ranks COURSIER as one of the TOP 20 international French box office champions distributed between 2011 and 2012.
My films have been released across the globe in over 50 countries and selected in multiple international Film Festivals. COURSIER is one of the only two European productions to enter China’s National Box Office Top 10 and one of the 20 most internationally profitable French theatrical feature films of the time.
I enter the international scene in 2011 for FRANCE TÉLÉVISIONS with the TV movie JACK OF DIAMONDS (ROUGE DIAMANT in France), a French-German-Canadian co-production uniting MUSE ENTERTAINMENT (USA/Canada) with FRANCE 2, GAUMONT, the ZDF and the Canadian network SHOWCASE. Entirely shot in english, in Canada, this pilot brings together an international cast led by John Bregar (US) and Jean-Yves Berteloot (France). Popular in Germany and Canada, where it airs to high ratings, this show is selected at the 26th Canadian Gemini Awards for « best writing in a dramatic television series ».
This success lands me a U.S. representation at PARADIGM in Los Angeles, where I work from 2012 to 2014, writing for television and cinema. Perfectly bilingual since my teenage years in Canada, I write directly in English, an essential skill to work in Hollywood… During these three years, I collaborate to the development of international projects with STUDIO CANAL, FUNDAMENTAL FILMS, VOLTAGE PICTURES, RADAR FILMS, SND and LION ROCK, the production company of legendary director John Woo.
Among other projects, I have helped pen the Chinese remake of my own PARIS EXPRESS movie, titled SUPER EXPRESS for the Chinese market, with FUNDAMENTAL FILMS.
In 2016, my episode of the hit French cop show SECTION DE RECHERCHES aired on France’s leading network TF1 to the series highest ratings in five years, with over 7 million viewers.
In 2017, my latest TV show, a feature-length episode of FRANCE 3’s popular “CASSANDRE” series, won the GRAND PRIX FOR “BEST FRENCH TV SERIES” at the 2017 COGNAC FILM FESTIVAL.
In 2018, 4,6 million viewers watched the episode’s during its first airing, a success that confirmed the show’s popularity with the French audience. In the wake of this rating, France 3 confirmed the order for a new season of the series.
Now represented by the LISE ARIF AGENCY in France, I am developing my third theatrical feature film while continuing to write and direct for television.
In my vision, the best directing allies entertainment to emotion, and combines a brilliant style with depth in content, without excesses.
All the filmmakers who inspire me share this powerful combination of visionary direction and grounded storytelling that I try for in my own work, both qualities equally necessary in the subtle art of film and television direction.
I favor an approach of filmmaking in which the viewer’s emotions are stirred as much by editing, music, image and sound as by the actors’ direction, just as essential. It is this alliance I always seek to explore in order to continue to surprise, move and amaze audiences across the world.