The Red Balloon is a 1956 French fantasy comedy-drama featurette written, produced, and directed by Albert Lamorisse. The thirty-four-minute short, which follows the adventures of a young boy who one day finds a sentient, mute, red balloon, was filmed in the Ménilmontant neighborhood of Paris.

Albert Lamorisse was a French filmmaker, film producer, and writer of short films which he began making in the late 1940s. He also invented the strategic board game Risk in 1957.