Olivier Loustau
After obtaining a master’s degree in communication from CELSA, Olivier Loustau studied acting with Vera Gregh and Blanche Salant at Studio Pygmalion. He rapidly began working in cinema and television. In autumn 1992, obsessed with a life long dream of becoming a journalist, he traveled to besieged Sarajevo as a freelance reporter. His account of the experience was later published in La Règle du Jeu.
He then acted in films by Bertrand Tavernier, Thomas Gilou, Dominique Farrugia, Nicolas Boukhrief, Cédric Anger, and Nicole Garcia. He collaborated with Abdellatif Kechiche, starring in La Faute à Voltaire, L’Esquive, La Graine et le Mulet, and Vénus Noire.
At the same time, he joined the European Conservatory of Audiovisual Writing and later the Screenwriting Workshop at La Fémis. He contributed to the writing of several scripts, including Capone, a film for Arte directed by Jean-Marc Brondolo and awarded at the FIPA Festival in Biarritz; SCALP, an 8×52′ series about the stock market for Canal+ directed by Xavier Durringer and Jean-Marc Brondolo; Quand la Ville Mord by Dominique Cabrera for France 2/Arte; and Félicité by Alain Gomis, which won the Silver Bear at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival.
After directing his first short film, C.D.D., Olivier Loustau made Face à la Mer, a medium-length film for Arte, produced by Patrick Grandperret, with whom he shares a passion for independent cinema, motorcycles, and adventure. He then embarked on the production of his first feature film, La Fille du Patron, co-produced by Patrick Grandperret, Julie Gayet, and Lisa Azuelos, playing the lead role alongside Christa Théret. The film, released in January 2016, received critical acclaim and won several awards at the Cabourg Film Festival, the Mons International Love Film Festival, the Bucharest International Film Festival, and the Carbonia Film Festival.
Since then, he has continued acting in feature films by Arnaud des Pallières, Thierry Klifa, Mia Engberg, Nadav Lapid, and José Alcala. He participated in the Annual Selection of Groupe Ouest for the development of his second feature film, Tir Ami.
Tir Ami
Annual Selection 2019
Algerian Djebel, Kabylia, 1959. A French army patrol falls into an ambush, their captain is killed. Mahut, a young officer newly deployed in Algeria, is forced to take command of the small group of survivors. They manage to break free and, in pursuit of nationalist Algerian fighters, encircle a small hamlet. There, Mahut watches one of his soldiers, consumed by rage, kill children and assault a young girl. Unable to stop him, Mahut kills the soldier. From that moment on, haunted by his crime and desperate to keep it secret, Mahut has to lead the group back to base.