Ibrahim El-Batout was born on the 20th of September, 1963 in Portsaid, He graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1985, majoring in physics. El Batout's infatuation for the camera started in the Video Cairo Production House, an agency that provides facilities for foreign TV-stations. There, he worked as a sound engineer. Shortly after he began to experiment with film making and learned about the skills required of cameramen, editors and directors. Later, he worked for a year in a British television station called TV-Am, located in Cyprus. And since then He has worked as a director, producer and cameraman, capturing stories mainly about human loss, suffering, and displacement since 1987, and has also directed numerous documentaries for international TV channels, such as ZDF (Germany), TBS (Japan) and ARTE (France). His documentary work has received many international awards, such as : the Axel Springer Award in Germany (1994 and 2000) and the Direct Marketing Association's coveted ECHO award (1996). In the beginning of 2004.

El Batout stepped into the world of fiction to make the long feature film 'Ithaki' (2005). His second film entitled 'Ein Shams' (Eye of the Sun) (2008) has won the Golden Bull, the top prize at the 54th Taormina Film Festival, 2008.