Writer — Director

Building ambitious worlds and bringing them all the way to the screen.

Positioning

I create stories of transformation, where marginalised individuals confront the systems that confine them.

Through psychological thriller, speculative fiction, social drama and eco-fiction, I explore how our identities are built, fractured and reinvented.

My characters often live on the margins — queer, autistic, reclusive, uprooted, stigmatised, made invisible, at odds with their environment. Their struggle is never only external: they have to transform themselves — in mind and in body — in order to survive.

My authorial promise

Turning complex social questions into emotional, accessible and cinematic stories.

MinoritiesQueer voicesNeurodivergence & autismMental healthEcologyArtificial intelligenceIdentityBody & mind

These themes are never treated as arguments. They become dramatic engines, embodied by characters facing impossible choices.

My signature

I develop worlds where the intimate meets the great shifts of our time. My stories question what makes us human, our need to belong, our relationship to the body and our ability to reinvent ourselves.

Whether it's a hikikomori confronting her AI avatar, a woman metamorphosing into a plant organism, a man trapped in a romantic obsession or an autistic woman piecing a trial back together alone, the heart of the story always stays the same:

How do you reclaim your freedom when you're locked inside an identity, a trauma or a system that no longer fits you?

My zone of genius

Building worlds

I don't just develop plots: I design complete narrative worlds.

· Mythology
· Characters
· Dramatic system
· Aesthetics
· Series potential

Making projects happen

What sets me apart is the way I connect creation to production. I write. I direct. I produce. I master several stages of the audiovisual chain and I'm known for my ability to carry projects through to the end, without ever compromising on the original artistic ambition.

Thinking as an ecosystem

I adapt to every format and develop projects able to live in different forms.

· Micro-drama
· Short film
· Feature film
· Series
· Transmedia universe

What I bring

Proactive and full of ideas, I'm always looking to push a project further.

To producers: A writer-director able to combine artistic singularity with a real understanding of production constraints.
To broadcasters: Contemporary stories connected to major social concerns and to the transformations of today's world.
To partners: A creator able to carry a vision over the long term, to bring teams together and to lead projects all the way to completion.

Creative territories

Psychological thrillerSpeculative science fictionEco-fictionSocial dramaFemale-led storiesQueer & LGBTQIA+ voicesNeurodivergence & autismMinorities & the invisibleMental healthArtificial intelligenceEcologyIdentityMarginalityTransformation of body & mindTechnology and societyEmancipation

Career objective

To develop films and series with a strong artistic identity that question our relationship to the human, to technology and to the shifts of society.

To build a creative ecosystem that brings out original, ambitious and meaningful stories, while fostering the representation of voices that are still too rarely heard.

Biography

Sophie Attelann is a writer-director. Her path follows the full arc of an artist: first a dancer, then an actress, before moving into writing as a screenwriter, then directing and finally producing. The same demand runs through every stage: giving form to ambitious worlds and carrying them all the way to the screen.

In 2021 she made her first feature, Hikikomori, released in cinemas and distributed on Amazon (UK and Europe), selected for the 5th Alice Guy Prize. Around fifteen short films, web series and music videos mark her path — a body of work run through by stories of transformation and by female characters kept at the centre of the frame.

She is now developing the series Hikikomori — System Override and co-writing Fractures, supported by the Guadeloupe Region and the CNC, pitched at Séries Mania in 2025. She is also carrying several feature and series projects, already being written or completed.

Career path

2026
Frenchywood — Writing contract
Writer-director within Frenchywood, a cultural ecosystem and professional network founded by producer Patience Priso (formerly Netflix) and Pascal Meslien.
2026
Hikikomori: System Override — Option contract
Fiction series signed under an option contract (6 × 30 min).
2025
Fractures — Séries Mania
Series co-written (Guadeloupe Region / CNC, Pictanovo), pitched at Séries Mania.
2023
CREATIS incubator
An incubator for entrepreneurs in creation and culture, where I launched my production company, YellowEyes Films.
2021
Hikikomori — Feature film
Theatrical release. 5th Alice Guy Prize selection, distribution on Amazon Prime Video (UK & EU).
2018–2024
Award-winning shorts
About a dozen short films, several awarded (Arts & Culture Prize 2022).
2021–2022
Music videos
Directed around a dozen music videos.
2012–2013
First web series
Camilla et Julie, then Une minute pour plaire ou pas.

Training, awards & commitments

Training

2023 — CREATIS incubator (launch of YellowEyes Films)
2021 — Production assistant, CEFPF Paris
2016 — Writer-Director of feature fiction, CEFPF Paris
2012–2014 — Acting: actor coaching at Studio Pygmalion (Actor Studio), with Pascal Luneau and Jack Waltzer
2000 — Dancer: professional training (classical, modern, jazz), Centre de Jazz Rick Odums

Awards & selections

Selection — 5th Alice Guy Prize (2021), for Hikikomori
Arts & Culture Prize 2022 — Juste une femme, La Robe Noire, À en crever
International distribution — Amazon Prime Video (UK & EU)
Academic licence requested by the University of Calgary (Canada)

Commitments

Founder of Alliées — a support and employment network for women in media, film and audiovisual.
PFDM mentoring — Pour les Femmes Dans les Médias (selective mentoring, 1 year).
Member of the collective Les Mardis des Réalisatrices.

Creations & publications

Beyond directing, Sophie Attelann designs tools, spaces and stories in the service of narratives — and of the women who carry them.

Vertical Clap: Vertical Clap is an app built for creators of vertical content. It supports writers, directors and storytellers in writing short-form series made for social media and mobile platforms. With tools tailored to the codes of the vertical format, Vertical Clap helps craft stories that are more immersive, more engaging and optimised to grab attention from the very first seconds.
Alliées: Alliées is a platform dedicated to women in media, film and audiovisual. Its ambition is to connect, champion and boost female talent by making professional connections easier, giving visibility to careers and opening access to opportunities. Alliées is meant to be a space for networking, collaboration and mutual support, contributing to a more inclusive and representative industry.
Hikikomori — Une journée pour revenir au monde: An intimate, sensory story that extends the world of the film Hikikomori: one day to face the living — the noise, the stares, the air on the skin — and those tiny encounters that quietly mend us. Written the way you film: in shots, in breaths, in details.