Riad Sattouf

• French director, cartoonist, and author of graphic novels, born in Paris in 1978.

  Passionate about graphic novels and comics since childhood, Riad Sattouf studied first at the École d’arts appliqués then at the Gobelins École de l’image, studying film animation. Works such as Pascal Brutal first earned him renown. His exploration of adolescence in his cartoon series La Vie secrète des jeunes, which ran for nearly ten years in Charlie Hebdo can be seen too in his first feature film The French Kissers (2009) which launched the career of Vincent Lacoste. A huge success with audiences and critics, the film allowed its director to develop new projects such as a web series, before his second film: Jacky in the Kingdom of Women (2014). He then returned to a more autobiographical style with the graphic memoir The Arab of the Future, which tells the story of his childhood in Libya and Syria. This five-volume series met with immense success internationally and won many prizes. At the same time, he illustrated and published Esther’s Notebooks, which tell the story of a young teenage girl and were later adapted into an animated TV series for Canal+.

• The French Kissers (2009) – Mes Colocs (2010) – Jacky in the Kingdom of Women (2014) – Esther's Notebooks (animated serie, 2019)