Film Festival - Screening of 'Cartoonists, Foot Soldiers of Democracy' + Q&A with director Stéphanie Valloatto [Registration on External Link]

Stéphanie Valloatto

After studying Law and Political Science, Stéphanie Valloatto chose to pursue a career as a writer-director to tell the world’s stories through images.

Over 25 years, she has written and directed around ten documentary films (26 and 52 minutes) for television (France 3, France 5, TV5, etc.), consistently addressing socially engaged themes: human rights in the maritime world (Robin des Mers), the importance of heritage and transmission (The Memory Keeper), the human adventure at the ends of the earth (The Heart of Man, Heritage of Humanity), andPhilippe Labro, Between Shadow and Light for the France 5 series Empreintes.

In 2014, she directed her first feature-length documentary, Caricaturists: Foot Soldiers of Democracy, co-written and co-produced by Radu Mihaileanu. The film follows 12 cartoonists from around the world who defend democracy armed only with a pencil, often at the risk of their lives. They come from France, Tunisia, Russia, Mexico, the United States, Burkina Faso, China, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Venezuela, Israel, and Palestine. Selected at the Cannes Film Festival, the film screened at 70 international festivals (New York, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Toronto, Lisbon, Moscow, Beijing, Ouagadougou, Abidjan, Tunis, Oslo, Reykjavik, Bucharest, Jerusalem, etc.). It was nominated for the 2015 César Award for Best Documentary. Stéphanie received the Henri Langlois Award for Best Documentary.

In 2016, she co-wrote with Fred Fougea and Alain-Michel Blanc First Man, a 90-minute docu-fiction retracing the updated story of human origins (a revisiting of The Odyssey of the Species), broadcast in prime time in April 2017 on M6.

In 2019–2020, she wrote, directed, and co-produced the 52-minute documentary The City of Hope, about youth in underprivileged suburbs seen through the work of street educators. It aired on March 23, 2020, on France 3.

In 2018, following a crowdfunding campaign, she began working on a feature-length documentary shot in France and the United States, meeting key players in the food transition movement. Food Family is currently in post-production.

Since 2022, she has been living between New York and France, developing film and series projects. Appointed Head of U.S. & French Connection and Head of the New York Chapter at French in Motion (an organization building bridges between French and American film professionals), she works on the selection of projects by French producers for Gotham Week (the largest U.S. film market), collaborates with the Alliance New York during Animation First (New York’s animation film festival), participates in Rendez-Vous with French Cinema with Unifrance and Villa Albertine at Lincoln Center, and organizes screening discussions with French and American directors and producers.

She is also an agent representing artists such as Jeff Danziger, political cartoonist for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Courrier International, whom she met while filming Caricaturists: Foot Soldiers of Democracy. She currently represents him with French, American, and European producers for his first animated feature film, City Cats.