Co-presented with Women in Animation.
To celebrate Florence Miailhe, Animation First 2022’s Guest of Honor, the festival is pleased to showcase a selection of her exquisite short films.
Over the course of her three-decade career in animation, Florence Miailhe has created a precious body of award-winning short films before directing her first feature film, The Crossing (2021). Her artistry shows through her use of pastels, sand, and paint directly under the camera. Her richly picturesque films often explore subjects like femininity, the human body, and desire.
“There is an intense vibration in the films by Florence Miailhe. A running fever, an impulsive insolence, a palpitation of colors, of sounds, which make you dizzy.” – Catherine Humblot, Le Monde
6 shorts, 84 min
Hammam
US Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, 1991, 9 min, color
In French with English subtitles
Nominee, Best Short Film, César Award 1991
Two women, going to the Hammam for the first time, lead us through a labyrinth of steam baths, showers and fountains.
Scheherazade (Schéhérazade)
US Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, 1993, 16 min, color
In French with English subtitles
Based on the famous story One Thousand and One Nights. Sultan Schariar became mad, completely mad with jealousy and how Scheherazade healed and enchanted him with her tales.
A Summer Night Rendez-vous (Au premier dimanche d'août)
NY Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, 2000, 11 min, color
In French with English subtitles
Winner, Best Short Film, César Award 2002
With successive strokes, the film paints a portrait of a village during its annual dance. From dusk to dawn, the music spreads its rocks, tangos and waltzes…
Urban Tale (Conte de quartier)
US Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, Canada 2006, 15 min, color
In French with English subtitles
Winner Special Mention, Cannes Film Festival 2006
With successive strokes, the film paints a portrait of a village during its annual dance. From dusk to dawn, the music spreads its rocks, tangos and waltzes…
Texture of Dreams (Matières à rêver)
NY Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, Canada 2009, 6 min, color
Without dialogue or commentary
Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2009 – Official Selection
To find an object of sexual fantasy in the act of painting itself, Texture of Dreams is an improvisation much like how we imagine love.
25, Passage des oiseaux
US Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, France, 2016, 4 min, color
In French with English subtitles
A woman daydreams looking out of her window.
Meanders (Méandres)
US Premiere
Dir. Florence Miailhe, Elodie Bouedec and Mathilde Philippon, France, 2013, 23 min, color
In French with English subtitles
A woman daydreams looking out of her window.
Based on Ovide’s The Metamorphoses. A river comes cascading down from a big rock overlooking the sea. The river, once a young man, named Acis, who has a great romance with Galatea, until Cyclop Polyphemus crushed him under a rock with jealousy.
About Florence Miailhe
Florence Miailhe graduated from the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs with a specialization in engraving. She began her professional career as a press model maker, exhibiting drawings and engravings.
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In 1991, she directed her first short film Hammam. Since then, she has imposed a very personal style in animated cinema with a pictorial sensuality and narrative poetry of her own. She makes her films based on paint, pastel or sand, directly under the camera, proceeding by recovery. Her work is noticed in various festivals in France and internationally. She received the César for best short film in 2002 for A Summer Night Rendez-vous, a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 for Urban Tale and received in 2015 a Cristal d’honneur, at the 39th Annecy International Animated Film Festival for all of her work.
She has worked as a teacher in prestigious animation schools: les Gobelins, ENSAD, la Poudrière, and continues to work as a visual artist.
Most of her films have been written with the collaboration of writer Marie Desplechin. Their first feature film The Crossing received in 2010 the prize for best screenplay at the Premiers Plans Festival the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, and the Audience Award at Animation is Film. It came out in France at the end of September 2021.
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