Fabien Martorell is a multi-awarded director (18 awards and 25 nominations in the US, UK and France), who lives in Los Angeles. Martorell comes from a suburb of Lyon, France. He essentially focuses on drama, thriller and crime films. He is a meticulous, detail-oriented director, with a unique esthetic and composition. He directed the Netflix film Collision, a drama/thriller, starring Langley Kirkwood (HBO’s Warrior), Vuyo Dabula, Tessa Jubber and many others, shot in Johannesburg, South Africa. The film was released on June 16, 2022 and quickly became #3 in the world and sat in the Top 10 list in 68 countries on Netflix.
Martorell’s short films have been acclaimed and awarded in many prestigious international film festivals. Unbelief, a drama/thriller, starring Andrew Howard (Limitless, Taken 3), Tobin Bell (Saw), based on the short story by Michael Marshall Smith, won multiple awards and nominations, and was an official selection of many international film festivals. The Coin, a drama, starring Christopher Lloyd (Back To The Future), Kathryn Morris (Minority Report, Cold Case), based on the short story Soul Murder by David Mamet, also won multiple awards and nominations, and was an official selection of many major international festivals including 4 Academy-qualifying festivals (Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival & ShortFest, LA Short Fest, Newport Beach Film Festival, Cleveland Int’l Film Festival). He also directed eight other short films, which have been selected and awarded in prestigious European film festivals.
Martorell’s first feature documentary, Tromatized: Meet Lloyd Kaufman, about the legendary and eccentric Lloyd Kaufman (president of Troma Entertainment and creator of the Toxic Avenger), starring Stan Lee, Roger Corman, Eli Roth, Trey Parker, James Gunn. It was awarded “Best Biographical Documentary” at the 2009 New York Int’l Indep. Film Festival, presided by Abel Ferrara. It was the selection at several other film festivals, including the Hollywood Film Festival, and it was acclaimed by the specialized press/critics. The film was picked up by Under The Milky Way and distributed worldwide (Amazon, iTunes, vudu, etc.). He finished the post-production of his second feature documentary, The Guns Story, about guitarist Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns, Guns N’ Roses), featuring Iggy Pop.
In 2011, he established his own film production company, FM Pictures, in Los Angeles, and in 2022, he established his second film production company, Lucky Rhino, with his partner Neo Baloyi in Johannesburg. He is the co-founder of the Festival du Film Court de Vaulx-en-Velin in France, now in its twenty second year. Martorell is passionate about German cinema from the 20s and 30s, Japanese cinema from the 50s, American cinema from the 80s and 90s, Korean cinema from the 2000s, and Art History such as European and Japanese paintings.