Emilie Pigeard

Émilie Pigeard was born in 1990 in the French town Les Lilas. After a year at the Sorbonne and a foundation year at the Atelier de Sèvres art school, she entered the prestigious Arts Décoratifs school in Paris, specializing in Animation. After five years she earned a distinction for her short graduation film Encore un gros lapin? (Big bunny again?) which was noticed and produced by Les Films Sauvages. In 2014, Émilie studied at the German Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (HFF) as part of an Erasmus exchange. There she met Anna Bergmann, a German filmmaker who shared the same enthusiasm for animated movies. The following summer, Anna asked her to come and help her with her latest film in Chicago, then in New York in November 2015. During this time, Émilie had the chance to discover the vivid imagination of Anna's four-year-old son, Lucas. The drawings and notebooks they made together inspired a series of illustrations depicting the American lifestyle. These improvised workshops with her new-found disciple gave a new direction to her work. Taking advantage of the busy New Yorkers' schedules, she started organizing art workshops for kids aged 3 to 6. Since then Émilie has been making films as a freelancer in Paris while continuing to draw and run workshops for kids.