Olivier Sarbil, born in Corsica, is a New York–based documentary director and two-time Emmy®-winning cinematographer. Over the past two decades, Sarbil has worked extensively in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, on many of the most pressing global conflicts and social issues that the world has faced. 

After leaving university at 21, Sarbil joined an elite French paratrooper regiment. Posted to Rwanda in 1993, he was deeply affected by the genocide. It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but it led Sarbil to lay down arms and pick up a camera. A decade later, in Southeast Asia, he began photographing the long-running ethnic conflicts in Myanmar and documenting the violent street protests between the so-called Red Shirts and the Thai government. He became known for his dark, visceral style and his ability to gain intimate access to the most difficult of subjects.

In 2011, Sarbil was severely wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade while filming the civil war in Libya. His wounds only strengthened his resolve to continue telling stories. Since then, he has filmed from the frontlines of the war in Syria, the spillover of that conflict in Lebanon and Jordan - and was in Gaza during the 2012 war with Israel. Sarbil accompanied French troops deployed to combat jihadists in Mali and filmed in the Central African Republic at the height of the interethnic violence. From 2014 to 2015, he documented the war in eastern Ukraine, following Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. 

In 2016–2017, during Mosul’s nine-month battle, Sarbil followed a group of young Iraqi Special Forces leading the fight against ISIS. The resulting short film, MOSUL, aired on PBS Frontline, earning an Emmy® for Outstanding Cinematography, an Emmy® nomination for Best Documentary, and a BAFTA nomination. The Guardian described the film as “an astonishing portrait of urban combat, and a gripping reflection of the universal, eternal truth of warfare.”

For his first feature, ‘ON THE PRESIDENT’S ORDERS’ (2018), Sarbil filmed a chilling portrait of the Philippine drug war. Praised for its clarity of vision, striking images, and unique access, the film earned an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Documentary, with Variety describing it as “a wholly cinematic, sensory experience, with straight-ahead reportage electrified by glaring streetlights and a panicked urban wall of sound.” The film also won the Royal Television Society Award for Cinematography.

From 2020 to 2021, including six months embedded with forward-deployed U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan, Sarbil served as cinematographer on RETROGRADE, directed by Academy Award®–nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman. The film chronicles the end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and won the Emmy® for Outstanding Cinematography

From 2022 to 2024, Sarbil directed and filmed VIKTOR, produced by Academy Award®–nominated filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. A deeply intimate portrait of a Deaf person’s experience of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was selected for the prestigious Platform Prize programme. Roger Ebert praised the film as “a truly singular experience worthy of its adulation.”