Education and short films (1980s) He was born in 1943 to a
Catholic family then in
Villefranche-sur-Mer, and discovering a book on
DIY stop motion animation. He was never formally taught animation, however, and instead studied the
decorative arts, first at the
Ecole régionale des Beaux-Arts in
Angers, then the
École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris and the
California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. He now lives and operates from an
atelier-apartment in Paris. In 1976, he created the series
The Adventures of Gédéon (based on
Benjamin Rabier), then his first professionally produced short film,
The Three Inventors, was produced in 1979 by
AAA (which also produced
Jacques Rouxel, the creator of the
Shadoks). He received an award at the
BAFTA that same year for this film in London. In 1983, he won the
César Award for Best Animated Short Film for
The Legend of the Poor Hunchback, also produced by
AAA.
Feature films and success (1990s–2000s) In 1994, Michel Ocelot was elected president of the
International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) for two terms. His œuvre is characterised by having worked in a variety of
animation techniques, typically employing a different medium for each new project, but almost exclusively within the genres of
fairy tales and
fairytale fantasy. Some, such as
Kirikou and the Sorceress, are loose adaptations of existing
folk tales, others are original stories constructed from the "building blocks" of such tales. He describes the process as "I play with balls that innumerable jugglers have already used for countless centuries. These balls, passed down from hand to hand, are not new. But today I'm the one doing the juggling." Visually, they are characterised by a rigid use, excepting brief transitions between them, of the side-on, straight-on and ¾ viewpoints TF1 INFO – Actualités du jour en direct : Actualité en France et à l'International of
silhouette and
cutout animation (such as that of
Lotte Reiniger and
Karel Zeman) even when working in mediums which allow for greater flexibility and dynamic viewpoints. Though often likened to Reiniger, he himself finds her films "rather archaic and not very attractive" and does not list them among his favourites. He was president of the ''Association international du film d'animation'' (
ASIFA) from 1994 to 2000. '' To celebrate "World Animation Day," Michel Ocelot participated on 28 in a special day on animation techniques at the
Forum des Images, in Paris, to conclude the "Animation Film Festival". He demonstrated the simplicity of his techniques live. While already a household name in much of
continental Europe, and greatly respected by
Studio Ghibli's
Isao Takahata (who directed Japanese dubs of his films), his success in the more conservative markets of the United Kingdom, United States and Germany has been restricted by a mixed reaction to the realistic and non-sexual, but nevertheless omnipresent nudity in his breakout film
Kirikou and the Sorceress. Although all of these countries' boards of film classification have approved it as being suitable for all ages, cinemas and TV channels have been reluctant to show it due to the possible backlash from offended parents. In 2007, he gained some further recognition within the English-speaking world by directing a music video for the Icelandic musician
Björk, the lead single from her album
Volta. In another 2008 interview he mentioned as further examples of favourite and influential artistic works
Voltaire's letters,
The Heron and the Crane,
Crac,
Father and Daughter, the first part of
Grand Illusion,
Neighbors, the
Eiffel Tower,
Millesgården,
Persian miniatures,
Jean Giraud's free drawing and illustrations by
Kay Nielsen.
Recognition (2010s) In 2008, he was awarded an international prize, the Klingsor Award (for his entire body of work) at the
Bratislava Animation Biennale (BAB). Two years later, he created the animated fantasy series
Dragons and Princesses for the television channel
Canal+ Family, which employs the cut-out paper technique from
Princes and Princesses. The following year, he adapted these 10 episodes into a feature film titled
Tales of the Night. The film attracted only about 500000 amissions but received several nominations at the
2011 Berlinale. In addition, the
Henri-Langlois Prize for
Animated Film and Moving Image was awarded to him in
that same year for his entire body of work. for the premiere of
Dilili in Paris. The following year, he concluded his trilogy with
Kirikou and the Men and Women. As the title suggests, this time the author focuses on telling stories of villagers rather than animals, as in the second installment. Technically, the filmmaker complemented 2D animation with
3D cinema technology. This project was originally conceived as a six-episode animated series for
France Télévisions. At the end of 2018, he unveiled his fifth animated feature,
Dilili in Paris, which tells the adventures of a young Franco-
Kanak girl in Paris during the
Belle Époque. While the filmmaker has fun depicting a visually imagined Paris, with the heroine encountering prominent figures of the time, he also confronts serious and realistic themes, discussing colonialism and racism. The film gathered more than 600000 viewers and won the
César Award for Best Animated Feature in 2019. ==Filmography==