About me / CV

Picture by Fabrizio Maltese 

Hi!

I am a stop motion filmmaker who lives in Luxembourg. The very first time I got an insight into animation was at the age of 11. My father showed me how to animate an inert object by moving it frame by frame with a high8 camera. He also presented me very short super8 films he produced when he was younger, as well as time lapses of clouds. I was really impressed but as a child you tend to get bored very quickly and often change activities. Thus, after several attempts, I stopped doing films and preferred spending my free time doing other things. Ten years later, when I was 21, I started to remember, during lessons at Art school, how cool it was to enliven objects and plasticine. I started working in animation again and was fascinated.Something I really want to mention is that I have been an autodidact in this domain and that I never attended any animation classes. I learned a lot during shootings and could not help myself being amazed by what you could do. I prefer stopmotion animation to any other kind of animation, because you give life to real objects or puppets by physical contact.

Building things or giving a shape to objects has become a  passion of mine and I really wanted to attend classes in industrial design but at some point I realised that I wanted to animate things or characters which led to the fact that I wanted to learn more about animation. Finally, I have always been extremely passionate about stop motion shootings and have liked travelling around for work.

  
 

CURRICULUM VITAE:

Awards:

·   2007: Luxembourg Young talent award at the « Lëtzebuerger Filmpraïs »

Professional experience:

As director

·   2011-2012 (august 2011 – february 2012) : director, character designer and set dresser on my short film « Emilie » (Samsa film/Lux, Beast animation/Be, Lev pictures/Nl)

·   2011 (february – april):  director on the stopmotion commercial for Luxembourgish Water company called « Viva » (Re:media, Binsfeld, Rosport) 

·   2005-2006 : writer, director and animator for the short animation film « Le gardien du nid » produced by Samsa Film  in Luxembourg (Special Mention, Cinenygma Festival Luxembourg, 2006)

·   2005 (October) : director, animator, puppet builder and sound technician for the announcement of the 2005 Animation Film Festival in Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

Other experience:

·   2012 (30 September – 30 November): location assistant on “Avant l’hiver” by Philippe Claudel (Samsa Film/LU, Les Films du 24/FR, Artemis Productions/BE)

·   2012 (25 April – 24 May) : location assistant on « My friend Vijay » by Sam Garbarski (Samsa Film/Lux, Pandora Film Produktion/De, Entre Chien et Loup/Be)

·   2012 (20-21 February) : animator on a commercial « Les Piscines Desjoyaux » for the weather forecast on Canal+ (SWAN production, Paris)

·   2011 (July – August) : Design & sculptures of the puppets for my short film « Emilie » at Pedri (Netherlands)

·   2011 (May) : Location scout for « Les Adorés » by Hélène Fillières, starring Benoît Poelvoorde and Laetitia Casta (Samsa Film/Lux, Albertine Productions/Fr, Entre Chien et Loup/Be)

·   2011 (April – May ): Location Scout & Casting shooting for « A bout portant » by Christophe Wagner (Samsa Film/Lux, Artémis Productions/Be)

·   2011 (April) : Location assistant during the test shooting of the feature film « A perdre la raison» by Joachim Lafosse (Versus Productions/Be, Samsa Film/Lux, Les Films du Worso/Fr, Box Productions/Ch, Prime Time/Be) (Cannes 2012, official selection “Un Certain Regard”, Best Actress for Emilie Dequenne)

·   2010 (November – December) : location assistant on « Valparaiso » by Jean-Christophe Delpias (ARTE, Agat Films Ex Nihilo/Fr, Artémis Productions/Be, Samsa film/Lux, RTBF)

·   2010 (August & September) : location assistant on « Les Géants » by Bouli Lanners (Samsa Film/Lu, Versus production/Be, Haut et Long/Fr) (Quinzaine des réalisateurs Cannes 2011, SACD Award and Art and Essay Cinema Award)

·   2010 (June & August) : location assistant on «Fils Unique» by Miel Van Hoogenbemt (Samsa Film/Lu, Entre Chien et Loup/Be, Liaison Cinématographique/Fr)

·   2009 (26 October – 11 November): set & prop builder  for « Cravendale » commercial in Brussels (La Parti production)

·   2009 (15 April) : Children’s workshop in the context of the showing of  « Petites éclosions » at the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel in Dudelange,  Luxemburg

·   2008 (20 October – 28 November): set & prop builder for  « Cravendale » commercial in Brussels (La Parti production) 

·   2008  (September – October) : set builder and lead animator for the short film « Mappamundi » by Bady Minck (Amour fou (Austria) & Minotaurus film (Luxembourg)

·   2007 (May – June) : prop and indoor set builder for the movie « Panique au village » of Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar  (La Parti, Belgium / Studio 352, Luxembourg)  

(« Midnight screening » at Cannes 2009)

·   2007 (May) : mask designer for the short film « Vault » of Fred Neuen in (Iris production) Luxembourg

·   2007 (12 December) : animator of multiple scenes in the topic « Sex mëcht fit » for the « magazin » of the RTL broadcasting company in Luxemburg

·   2006 (June  – December) : assistant animator and puppet builder for the stopmotion animation feature « Max&Co »  (cinémagination production company in Fribourg, Switzerland (prix du public à Annecy 2007)

·   2006 (May) : Project ‘Introduction to animation techniques’ for primary school children during the week of Animation Film Festival  in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

·   2006 : Organisation and sélection of short French animation films for the 2006 Animation Film Festival at the KulturFabrik in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg 

·   2004 : assistant animator, puppet builder, prop assistant for « ELEGANT » of Daniel Wiroth

·   2003 (November) : assistant director and animator for the video clip and commercial « Song for Life » produced by Samsa Film  in Luxembourg)

·   2003 (June – July) : assistant animator for the tests of « Elegant » of Daniel Wiroth, produced by  Samsa Film in Luxembourg

·   2003 (May) : location assistant of the short film « Schmol » produced by Samsa Film  in Luxembourg

·   2003 : assistant animator for « Valorlux 3” commercial, produced by Nemo Production  in Luxembourg

·   2001 : august : 3 weeks training on the job in a font design company in Foetz, Luxembourg

Education:

·   2003-2004: graduated the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy. (received a national diploma for creative arts with honorable mention)

·   2001-2004: first through third year of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy.

·   2000-2001: Atelier de Sèvres; Preparatory year for Art school, design, graphical arts, painting

·   1999-2000: graduated from secondary school in the artistic section (section E)

Languages :

·   English

·   French

·   German

·   Luxembourgish