Sébastien Aubert is a French entrepreneur and film producer, known for producing the feature film ''

LaRoy, Texas ''LaRoy, Texas'' is a 2023 American crime comedy film written and directed by Shane Atkinson, and starring John Magaro, Steve Zahn, Megan Stevenson, Matthew Del Negro and Dylan Baker. It was released on April 12, 2024. Plot Ray operates his ...

'' which won the Grand Prix at the 2023

Deauville American Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival () is a yearly film festival devoted to Cinema of the United States, American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Chouchan, André Halimi, and then ...

. He is the co-founder of the production company Adastra Films, along with David Guiraud.

Biography

Education and Early Career

Sébastien Aubert graduated from EM Lyon Business School in 2007. During his studies, one of his professors, who worked in the film industry, inspired him to pursue the same path In 2007, Sébastien Aubert completed a nine-month internship at the French Film Festival in Richmond,

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, with his friend David Guiraud. Following this experience, the two friends founded the production company Adastra Films in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

in 2008 to produce David Guiraud’s first short film, ''Le Tonneau des Danaïdes''. At the age of 25, Sébastien Aubert recalls that the three-week shoot in the Moroccan

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

was very challenging. However, he admits that this experience inspired his decision to become a producer. ''Le Tonneau des Danaïdes'' was a success, screened at nearly fifty festivals around the world, which helped the young company build a network. Sébastien Aubert then set aside his ambition to move to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to work in the film industry and decided to continue the Adastra Films adventure in

From Short Films to Feature Films

In 2011, Sébastien Aubert produced ''The Strange Ones'', a short film written and directed by Christopher Radcliff and

Lauren Wolkstein Lauren Wolkstein is an American film director, writer, producer and editor. She is known for directing, writing, and editing the 2017 film '' The Strange Ones'' with Christopher Radcliff and serving on the directorial team for the third season o ...

. The shoot took place in the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The film was selected for many festivals worldwide, including the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

and the

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (French: ''Festival international du court métrage de Clermont-Ferrand'') is an international film festival dedicated to short films held annually in Clermont-Ferrand, France. It is the ...

. According to Sébastien Aubert, it was Adastra Films' first short film to achieve such international success. The film was shortlisted for the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...

in 2012, but ultimately was not among the six final nominees. The short film was broadcast on

France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...

during the ''Histoires Courtes'' program. In 2014, Sébastien Aubert produced his first feature film, '' Brides'', the debut film by Tinatin Kajrishvili. The film had its world premiere at the

64th Berlin International Film Festival The 64th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 6 to 16 February 2014. Wes Anderson's film ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' opened the festival. British film director Ken Loach was presented with the Golden Bear#Golden Bear .E2.80. ...

in February 2014, where it won the third Audience Award. That same year, the film was also selected for the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

. After producing their short films, Sébastien Aubert became the producer of

and Christopher Radcliff’s first feature film, '' The Strange Ones''. To finance the film, he turned to American investment funds and private investors, raising a budget of $725,000. In 2016, it was announced that

Alex Pettyfer Alexander Richard Pettyfer (born 10 April 1990) is an English actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of '' Stormbreaker''. Pettyfer was nominat ...

and James Freedson-Jackson would join the cast to play the two lead characters. The shoot took place in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

over 20 days. The film was released in U.S.

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

in December 2017 and in France in July 2018, distributed by Épicentre Films. It received favorable reviews but had a limited release in only 40 theaters. In 2015, at the

Biarritz Film Festival The Biarritz Festival Latin America () is an international film festival held annually in the French city of Biarritz since 1979. Awards * HUG for Best Feature * Jury Award for Best Feature * Best Actress * Best Actor * Feature Film Audience ...

, Sébastien Aubert was captivated by the short film ''Domingo'' by Raoul Lopez Echeverria and expressed his interest to the director in adapting it into a feature film. Four years later, in October 2019, filming took place in the

favela Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of impoverished neighborhoods in Brazil. The term, which means slum or ghetto, was first used in the Slum of Providência in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was b ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, where Raoul Lopez Echeverria is originally from. The film was selected for the 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Made in Jalisco award at the 36th edition of the

Guadalajara International Film Festival The Guadalajara International Film Festival () is a week-long film festival held each March in the Mexican city of Guadalajara since 1986. The presence in Guadalajara of delegates from other important festivals from around the world has helped M ...

in 2021. In 2020, ''Heartbeast'', the debut feature film by Aino Suni produced by Sébastien Aubert, was released. This psychological thriller, starring Elsi Sloan, Carmen Kassovitz,

Adel Bencherif Adel Bencherif (born 30 May 1975) is a French actor. He is best known for his role in the 2009 film '' A Prophet''. Filmography *2004: '' Grande École'' - Ouvrier flash-back 2 *2004: '' Safia et Sarah'' - Un jeune de la cité *2005: '' Ze f ...

, and Camille, was almost entirely shot on the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

. The original

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

was composed by JB Dunckel, with the lead track performed by Chilla.

To a Wider Audience

In September 2023, the film ''

'', directed by

Shane Atkinson Shane Atkinson, of Christchurch, New Zealand was a major spammer whose details were leaked onto the Internet soon after an article was written about him in the ''New Zealand Herald''. After he was exposed as a spammer in 2003, Shane Atkinson foun ...

and produced by Adastra Films, won the Grand Prix, the Audience Award, and the Critics’ Prize at the

. Sébastien Aubert and the director met at the

in 2013, where Shane Atkinson presented ''Penny Dreadful'', a short film that caught Sébastien Aubert's attention ''LaRoy, Texas'' was released in French cinemas in April 2024 and achieved over 67,000 admissions in nine weeks. At the end of 2023, the filming of ''In the Name of Blood (''the debut feature film by French-Georgian director Akaki Popkhadze) took place in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Nicolas Duvauchelle Nicolas Duvauchelle (born 27 March 1980) is a French actor, perhaps best known for his role as Theo in three seasons of the crime drama '' Braquo''. Career Duvauchelle starred in numerous films including ''Lightweight'', '' À tout de suite'' ...

, Denis Lavant, and Finnegan Oldfield, has a budget of 3 million euros. The film had its world premiere at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in September 2024 and is set to be released in French cinemas on January 5, 2025.

Filmography

Feature films

* 2014: '' Brides'' directed by Tinatin Kajrishvili * 2017: '' The Strange Ones'' directed by Christopher Radcliff and

* 2020: ''Domingo'' directed by Raul Lopez Echeverria * 2022: ''Heartbeast'' directed by Aino Suni * 2024: ''

'' directed by

* 2025: ''In the Name of Blood'' directed by Akaki Popkhadze

Short films

* 2008: ''Le tonneau des Danaïdes'' directed by David Guiraud * 2010: ''I am Agha'' directed by Muhammard Umar Saeed * 2010: ''Jour 0'' directed by Vincent Diderot * 2011: ''Deux inconnus'' directed by Christopher Radcliff et

* 2011: ''Le nid'' directed by Tornike Bziava * 2012: ''Black Mulberry'' directed by Gabriel Razmadze * 2013: ''Social Butterfly'' directed by

* 2013: ''L'assistante'' directed by David Guiraud * 2014: ''Jonathan's Chest'' directed by Christopher Radcliff * 2015: ''Mine de rien'' directed by Grzegorz Jaroszuk * 2015: ''H recherche F'' directed by Marina Moshkova * 2016: ''Maxiplace'' directed by Vincent Diderot * 2016: ''En proie'' directed by David Guiraud * 2018: ''The Ambassador'' directed by

* 2022: ''Out of the Fog'' directed by Tigrane Minassian

Awards

In 2012, Sébastien Aubert won one of the four European prizes at the European Awards for Entrepreneurship through the Erasmus program for young entrepreneurs of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. In 2014, he received the

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

Young Producer Award, awarded by a jury chaired by Emma de Caunes. In 2015, he was named among the future leaders of film production by ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' magazine. In 2015, ''Le Journal des Entreprises'' named him among 'The 100 Leaders Who Will Change France. In 2018, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Cannes, presented by Mayor

David Lisnard David Lisnard (born 2 February 1969) is a French politician of The Republicans (LR). He was elected mayor of Cannes in 2014. Early life and education Lisnard was born in Limoges in Haute-Vienne. His father Denis Lisnard (1944–2024) was a prof ...

. From 2020 to 2023, he was a laureate of the ''Choiseul 100'' for the France Region Sud, a ranking by the Institut Choiseul that highlights the most promising leaders under 40 who are playing or are set to play a major role in the French economy.

References

External links

Sébastien Aubert
at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

*
Sébastien Aubert
at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

Sébastien Aubert
at

Unifrance Unifrance is an organization for promoting French films in France and abroad. It is managed by the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée. It has several hundred members who include filmmakers, directors, screenwriters and agents. Fou ...

Sébastien Aubert
at the

Berlinale Talent Campus The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aubert, Sebastien 1983 births Living people Emlyon Business School alumni French film producers French film production company founders