Over the course of 10 years, Samuel built his expertise as a VFX supervisor and animation director on commercials and feature films. Thanks to the success of his student short film Mad Cow, Sam also began directing his first commercials.
In 2008, his short film Even Pigeons Go to Heaven was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Since then, Sam has earned a reputation as an internationally acclaimed director of CGI animation for commercials and short formats. In 2010, he directed three short films — Banana, Home Makeover, and Orientation Day — for the Despicable Me franchise.
In 2013, he directed the Futuroscope attraction ‘The Time Machine of the Raving Rabbids’, which was awarded ‘Best Attraction in the World’ at the 2015 Thea Awards in Los Angeles.
In 2018, Lego and Passion Paris entrusted him with directing the first season of the Lego City Adventure series. He then immediately moved on to direct his first feature film, Around the World in 80 Days, with Cottonwood. The film was released in 2021 and ranked #1 on Unifrance’s list of top-performing French films abroad.
Since then, Samuel has returned to the Lego universe, directing Seasons 1 and 3 of Lego Friends: The Next Chapter.