Born in Casablanca, Sofia Alaoui grew up between Morocco and China. After graduating from high school in Casablanca, she moved to Paris to study cinema. In 2017, she returned to Morocco to develop her own production company, Jiango Films. She has directed documentary and fiction shorts that have been selected for numerous festivals. Her short film So What If the Goats Die (2020), shot in the Atlas Mountains and entirely in Tamazight, featured non-professional actors. It won the Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the César Award for Best Short Fiction Film. She went on to direct the fantastical short The Hidden Lake, which was produced for 20th Century Fox and broadcast on Hulu. Animalia (2023), her first feature-length film, won the Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.