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Sylvain biography

Sylvain Chomet was born in France in 1963. He obtained his baccalauréat in 'arts-plastiques' in 1982 and in 1987 graduated with a diploma from the comic book school of Angoulême.

In 1986 he published his first comic book Le secret des libellules (The Secret of Dragonflies) and adapted Victor Hugo's first novel, Bug-Jargal, into a comic book.

Sylvain Chomet began his career in animation in September 1988 working as an assistant for Richard Purdum's studio in London. Soon afterwards he entered a freelance career, working for several London animation studios where he directed a number of animated TV commercials.

In 1989 (whilst continuing to write and publish comic books) he embarked on his first animated short film, La Vieille Dame et les Pigeons (The Old Lady and the Pigeons) which came to fruition in 1996 and was nominated for an academy award in 1997.

In 1997 Sylvain worked briefly for Disney Animation Studios in Toronto, before being given the go-ahead by his producers to start the storyboard for his first animated feature film, Triplets of Belleville. The movie (made in Montreal) took five years to make and was sold to more than 33 countries worldwide, including the USA and Japan. The Triplets of Belleville was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Song in 2004's Academy Awards.

More recently, Sylvain wrote and directed a five-minute live action slot for the collaborative feature film, Paris Je T'aime (the brainchild of the producer of Amelie) involving 20 internationally acclaimed directors. A live action musical feature film set in 1970s Paris is currently in development in partnership with the same producer.

Sylvain lives near Edinburgh, Scotland where his studio, Django Films, is based. He is directing The Illusionist, a 2D animated feature film based on an original script by Jacques Tati which is set to be released in 2009.