Stéphanie Clément Blends Beauty And Dread In Oscar-Nominated ‘Pachyderme’

Miyu Distribution has posted Stéphanie Clément’s haunting 2024 Oscar-nominated short ‘Pachyderme’ on Youtube.

The film’s synopsis reads:

Like every summer, Louise is entrusted to her grandparents for a few days of vacation in the countryside. Between the green grass in the garden, swimming in the lake, fishing with grandpa, everything seems as sweet as grandma’s strawberry pies. But this year, it will snow in the middle of summer and a monster will die.

‘Pachyderme’ features subtle and oddly calm narration, given its dark subject matter. It tells the story of a young girl’s survival in the face of abuse. Impressive cg animation creates a visual metaphor for the dissociative nature of trauma suffered by its young protagonist. Clever use of framing, like never showing an unobscured sky, creates a claustrophobia that the audience shares with the young protagonist.

Speaking with Cartoon Brew after her film was nominated for the 2024 Academy Award for best animated short, Clément explained:

I sought to create images that would inspire a mixed feeling of gentleness and unease in the viewer through the simple play of colors, framing, and composition. The colors had to evoke those of old photographs as if we were immersed in an album of family memories, as well as the summer landscapes of southern France: the yellow of the dry grass, the turquoise of the water, the dark green of the cypress trees. But colorful and bright at the start, the film ends on a pale, earthy note.