Jan 10, 2024

Interview with Oscar Nominee: Director Steven Vuillemin on His Favorite Shot in "A Kind Of Testament" (Exclusive Interview)

We invited the makers of the 15 films nominated for this year's Academy Awards for Best Animated Short to share their favorite shots from their films and why. Each film is listed in the order the materials were received. Voting for the nominations will begin tomorrow, January 11.

In this piece, director Steven Vuillemin talks about his French short "A Kind of The film was screened in competition at the Berlinale International Short Film Festival.

In this haunting film, a young woman finds an animated video on the Internet made from her own private selfies. After investigating, she contacts a stranger with the same name who confesses to stealing her identity, but a big unanswered question looms. Disturbing music and sound effects clash with the brilliant illustrations to create a viewing experience that forces the audience to share the protagonist's anxiety.

Below, Vuillemin introduces his favorite scene in the short and tells us what it means:

At 30 seconds, this is the second longest shot in the film. There is movement throughout, multiple characters and interactions, no camera movement or similar tricks. All of these elements meant that this shot presented me with a real challenge in animation.

At the very beginning of the project, I worked on the animation alone, and it took me many months to complete it. However, when it was completed, I was very happy with the results. I felt like I learned a lot by doing this shoot.

It also allowed me to see how much time and effort the rest of the film would take. So it was both exciting and scary.

Read other entries in the series so far: