I attended two sessions dedicated to the French animation school La Poudrière. The first one was a series of screenings showing some of its students’ projects. It was a selection of short films aimed at children.

My favourites ones were “Samare”, by Nicolaï Trochinsky, “Ranas”, by Célia Sacido-Martin, “Rue des abattoirs”, by Mathieu Brisebras, “Le Grand Plongeon”, by Guillaume Delaunay, and “Coup sur coup”, by Julien Bisaro.

















Le Grand Plongeon




Coup sur coup










The second one consisted in a lecture by Annick Teninge, director of La Poudrière, and Laurent Pouvaret, animator and director of studies, who explained to us how the school operates, its philosophy and the students selection criteria and the tests they must do. They remarked that the school’s philosophy was not to teach animation but to develop the students’ cinematographic language skills, their ability to write scripts, to create stages, to direct actors for voice-overs or to understand the relation between sound and image. Then they can focus on whatever aspect they prefer by doing individual or group projects. They also emphasized how students get to work with and learn from professionals that go each year to the school to share their knowledge and experience with them.