Francesco Garbo is an Italian filmmaker based in France. He began his career in Berlin, working as a cinematographer on internationally co-produced documentaries for broadcasters such as ARTE, ZDF and ORF, including the award-winning Free Lunch Society (dir. Christian Tod), Fuck Fame (dir. Robert Cibis) and trustWHO (dir. Lilian Franck). While in Germany, he co-founded the independent production company Katzbach Film together with Pierluigi Muscolino. In 2018, he directed his first fiction short film, Stuck, which was selected at several international film festivals. He later directed his first documentary, Ulicama, shot in Bosnia. After moving to Marseille, he co-directed the short film Lievito Madre (2020) with Pierluigi Muscolino, selected at international festivals and included in the AG Kurz 2021 catalogue of the best German short films of the year. In 2023, his first feature-length documentary, Viananda, co-directed with Gianmaria Zago, premiered at several festivals and received a Special Mention at the Tulipani di Seta Nera – Social Film Festival in Rome. He is currently developing new film projects and teaches filmmaking at cinema schools such as La Cinéfabrique, 3iS, YNOV Campus and Sup de Sub.
