January 12th, 2022 
Jackson Murphy 
Bastien Dubois received a Best Animated Short Film Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Madagascar, A Journey Diary. 11 years later, he could potentially score his second Oscar nom for his latest animated short, Souvenir Souvenir. It’s one of the 15 finalists in the category — and has already earned major honors from the Sundance Film Festival and the Annie Awards. Souvenir Souvenir dives into Dubois’ grandfather’s experiences being a soldier during the Algerian War of Independence. (This Animation Scoop interview with Dubois was conducted as an Email Q&A and was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: I got the chance to watch this the first time through the virtual Sundance Film Festival last year, where you won a major award. How was that experience, as well as winning an Annie Award?
Bastien Dubois: My first film Madagascar, A Journey Diary competed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. It was one of my first festival experiences and… traveling to the States, making all those friendships… to be in Sundance! That was huge. Fantastic memories. So this 2020-2021 COVID online festival tour was… not the same. But all the festivals are doing their best to make people connect and to bring the films to the audience with the best conditions. But Sundance…. My god, they were so creative to make this a new experience of a festival. I would never exchange a meta festival with an “in real life” festival. But Sundance did it great. And to get awards… well Sundance and Annie. I never even dreamt about it. I thought my film was too dark, too twisted and talkative to reach such a wide audience and get such wonderful feedback. In France we have the chance to get very strong support from institutions, especially animation. And I was lucky enough to have the support to create something very personal and unconventional. That’s the power of state support. But I was always thinking it will make no festivals! LOL
JM: Souvenir Souvenir is a film about making this film. What was it about this entire experience that… made you think differently about what it means to make a movie?
BD: I would not say that the experience of going through this process of making Souvenir Souvenir changed my point of view on filmmaking because I went through so much on the personal aspect that the filmmaking aspect was small in comparison. But yes, I always thought that making a movie is so much work that it deserves to be meaningful. I work quite often as a script doctor. I think every movie project, every story, even the simplest ones, the most contemplative not-engaging stories… have the potential to have a subtext that can shake you, change you. Even if it’s not perceptible. At least I think movies have that potential and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that or avoid that.
JM: I was fortunate enough to have strong relationships with all four of my grandparents. How did your relationships with your grandparents change and evolve during the making of Souvenir Souvenir?
BD: My grandmother always understood what I was planning to do and she tried to help, she acted like a [mediator]. She even did her own voice. My grandfather was skeptical and grumpy. He was always acting like that. I always wondered if he would have been a different person if he never had to go to Algeria. Probably. Both of them passed away while I was making the film.
JM: Your films are animated documentaries. We have a major animated feature contender this year that’s an animated doc, Flee. How do you feel animated documentaries are breaking convention and changing the landscape of animation?
BD: I never went to the documentary side on purpose. I never preconceived it. I realized my work has some documentary aspects after I finished my first film. I would not say they are animated documentaries. I like to say they “have some documentary aspects”. It’s always based on true facts and with some elements from real life, but I don’t feel like I followed the codes of documentaries, and my narration is always too frantic and whimsical.
JM: You present two different animation styles — sometimes within the same frame. Is that as difficult to do as it looks?
BD: Are you talking about the conception of the mixed styles shots? Actually, it was not harder than the average shot in the film because the “cartoony” part was made by very professionals and organized animators from Train-Train animation studio and everything was pretty well planned and executed. The complexity was mostly to evaluate the impact, the message, the balance and the length of those shots in the editing of the animatic – as well as the switch from one style to another. What I like the most with the “cartoony” style developed by Train-Train is that some shots can evoque very various emotions – from a childish fantasy to a provocative teenage punk rock music video. It became the illustration of my obsession with that topic going so far as to merge with my reality.
JM: What advice would you give young, aspiring filmmakers who want to share stories about personal/family difficulties and struggles?
BD: Everybody (including me) makes the same mistake: to stop to dig too early and to think or pretend to have a story on the first draft. We are all facing tons of blockages. Our brains are full of mind lockers. And this is not only about personal/family difficulty stories. Society feeds us all with the same injonctions and pre-established ways of thinking. Try to see over it. Point at your certitudes, study them, destroy them, create some new ones. Those new ways of thinking, new points of view will make your approach worth a movie.
JM: How does it feel to be on the Oscar shortlist — and a possible nominee [again]?
BD: When I was first Oscar nominee in 201, I was 27. I remember that I didn’t realize how big and crazy it was until the ceremony was over. I think it was so huge that I was like a rabbit in the headlights. So instead of stopping everything and enjoying it or embracing the promotional work to optimize this opportunity, I just ignored it and kept focusing on the small current s**t I was busy with at the time. It’s really funny now when I think about It! To see how my brain froze and the human capacity for denial. Today I’m a bit older, and aware, and I know how lucky I am. And I know what it means, and I’m overwhelmed with joy. I really want to savor every drop of these crazy times!
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