Director in France, Raphaëlle Bellanger Named EyeCandy’s Best Director of 2026
This year, Raphaëlle Bellanger – one of the directors within our France team – was named Best Director of 2026 by EyeCandy Awards, a platform dedicated to celebrating outstanding directing talent, creative excellence and the craft behind some of the industry’s most compelling work.
Raphaëlle Bellanger is a Paris-based film director and creative director. She has directed films for luxury houses including Saint Laurent, Byredo, Valentino, and Prada. She is also the co-founder of KIDZ, an independent publishing and curatorial project giving carte blanche to 50 emerging artists from around the world. Through KIDZ, she has curated exhibitions and performances in Paris and New York, including at Lafayette Anticipations, DSM, and Printed Matter.
For directors, EyeCandy has become a valuable industry benchmark, spotlighting emerging and established voices who are helping shape the future of visual storytelling. Being named Best Director is recognition not only of creative talent, but also of a director’s ability to bring distinctive perspectives, original narratives and memorable worlds to the screen.
To mark the recognition, we sat down with Raphaëlle to hear her thoughts on the award, the importance of creative authenticity and where she believes the industry is heading.
Congratulations on being named Best Director of 2026 by EyeCandy. What does this recognition mean to you, and what do you think has defined your work over the past year?
Thank you so much! It’s always incredibly rewarding and motivating to have your work recognized and appreciated. I haven’t been directing for very long, but if I had to define my work this year, I’d say that I always try to bring a narrative approach to it, which isn’t always easy in advertising, and to create strong, distinctive worlds.
How do you approach building a distinctive creative voice while continuing to evolve as a director?
I think anything that feels sincere and genuinely comes from you, your taste, your sensitivity and your references naturally results in a distinctive creative voice. I mostly try to fight for my ideas without distorting them too much along the way, so they can stay as close as possible to my own universe. I also approach every advertising project as an audience member first, and ask myself what would surprise me, move me, make me laugh or make me stop scrolling.
As technology and AI continue to reshape production, where do you see the greatest opportunities for directors, and what aspects of the creative process should never change?
In a nutshell, I don’t think sensitivity and creativity can ever truly be replaced.
Many brands are looking to create more content than ever before. How can the industry ensure that speed and scale don’t come at the expense of creativity and craft?
I think it’s almost impossible, and in many ways it’s already happening. The industry is saturated with images, producing more, faster and creating more and more content that often ends up looking the same, in order to sell more and more products we don’t necessarily need. Creativity is precious, it takes time. But I believe these things come in waves. So I’m optimistic that it will change. At some point, everyone reaches saturation.
At POP, we’re passionate about bringing together craft, technology and production expertise. What role do you think strong production partnerships play in elevating creative ideas?
An idea is something very fragile. It needs to be carried, defended and protected for months, from production through the shoot and all the way into post-production. A team that truly believes in your idea will help you protect it, give you the means to bring it to life and sometimes even make it better.
Protecting the idea
Raphaelle’s perspective reflects something increasingly valuable in today’s content landscape: the importance of protecting creative ideas and giving them the space to flourish. Her belief in the enduring power of creativity, sensitivity and storytelling serves as a reminder that great work starts with a strong point of view.
To follow the celebration of this award, we have asked her to select her top 3 works delivered within POP – the ones that make her proud. Here they are:
BYREDO x Isabelle Huppert
YSL x Dua Lipa – LIBRE
Valentino Beauty – Studio 54
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