Ari Folman was born in 1962 in Haifa, Israel. He attended the Tel Aviv Film School from 1986 to 1990 and in the following year he was the writer or director (with Ori Sivan) of the documentary Comfortably Numb, which is a night journey in TLV during Iraqi missile’s attacks through the entire first gulf war. He won, the Israeli Academy Award (Ophir) for best documentary and Jerusalem Film Festival Wolgin prize for best documentary.
In 1996 he was involved as writer or director (with Ori Sivan) in the feature film Saint Clara, which made him win 6 Israeli Academy Awards including Best Film and Best Director. He won the Karlovy Vary Special Jury Prize award and opened the Panorama at the Berlin Film Festival in the same year.
In 2001 he won 2 Israeli Academy Awards (Ophir) thanks to his feature film Made in Israel as writer or director. From 2001 to 2004 he wrote the TV show BeTipul, later adapted to HBO Golden Globe winning series In Treatment.
In 2008 he was involved as writer, director, or producer in the Animated Documentary feature film Waltz with Bashir. He won the Golden Globe award for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2009, and in the same year he was nominated for the Academy Award, and the Best Documentary Director at the US Director’s Guild 2009. He also won 6 Israeli Academy Awards (Ophir) including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, with other 26 prizes around the world.
In 2013 he won the European Film Award (EFA) in Best Animated Film with The Congress, a hybrid live action/animated science-fiction feature film, starring Robin Wright and Harvey Keitel.
In 2021 he directed the feature film Where is Anne Frank, an animated adaptation of the Anne Frank Diary.