French director Rémi Durin, who is best known for writing and directing acclaimed shorts such as Head in the Clouds (2023) and features such as The Scent of Carrots (2014) and Yuku and the Flower of the Himalayas (2024), was the winner of the Jury prize for Best Animated Short at the New York Intl. Children’s Film Festival for his beautiful short, Sparrows [Moineaux]. The 2D-animated project tells the deceptively simple tale of a young Buddhist monk in training who is distracted by a sparrow and follows the bird outside the monastery.
Durin says the origins of the short goes back to a day he was driving in the car with his producer Arnaud Demuynck on their way back from mixing his previous film. “He told me a little story about a young monk and an encounter with a sparrow, and that idea—which was summed up in a few sentences—really appealed to me,” he recalls. “So, I quickly proposed a storyboard that was an adaptation of what Arnaud had told me. There was no scriptwriting—just images, all done very quickly. So, it wasn’t my idea originally. For my part, I brought the whole universe of the monastery in the mountains, the anchoring of the characters, and the different phases of the journey. This allowed me to discover and bring to life a region of the world I had never taken an interest in before.”
The 12-minute short, which had a ballpark budget of 40,000 euros (around $43,500), took about three months to make. Durin worked with two animators to make the project. “The team was very small,” he tells us. “I really like that. I used a very simple tool, TVPaint, which allows for easy and lightweight work. Given the budget, the film needed a technical process that made working straightforward.”
Few Lines & Splashes of Color
A graduate of the National School of Visual Arts of La Cambre in Belgium, Durin cofounded the L’Enclume Animation Studio in Brussels in 2006 (alongside Paul Jadul, Jaramie Mazurek and Constantin Beine). He says he has a deep love for bold and expressive sketching “I love a few lines, splashes of color, watercolor and few effects,” he notes. “I wanted to try doing the same thing for this short.”
Durin says one of his biggest challenges in making Sparrows was, in fact, the animatic. “The film needed to have a certain duration and a precise rhythm, so we could feel the character’s evolution and the passage of time,” he explains. “Balancing this was very delicate. I think the film might still be a bit too long.”
On the flip side, he says the best part of the process was creating the sets for the short. “I enjoy researching and finding shot ideas in the photos or images I come across,” he adds.
The Illustration Man
Durin says his biggest influences come from illustrators such as Sempé, Quentin Blake and Richard Scarry. “I don’t have any real influences in animation, I’m very little cultured on this point,” he jokes. “Actually, I probably do, but I’m not aware of them. I do draw a lot of inspiration from books, comics, and children’s albums. Well, actually one of my biggest influences is a director friend of mine, Morgane Simon, who inspired me a lot in bringing my character to life. We were making our films side by side at the Enclume studio in Brussels. It’s obvious that she influenced me. And it would be unfair not to acknowledge it!” I love creating the sets for my films. I enjoy researching and finding shot ideas in the photos or images I come across.”
The director, who turns 42 this April, has a charming story to share when asked what he hopes audiences will take away from his short. “When I was little, one day we met an old man who was walking very, very, very slowly down the street,” he recalls. “He was very hunched over and took tiny steps with the help of his cane. This man didn’t seem to be suffering at all. He was just taking a walk. My mom told me, “Think that one day, this old man used to run and jump just like you do today.” It’s not a very deep or sophisticated thought, but when I think back on it, I imagine the day when, in turn, I will become slow — very, very slow! Today, when I walk and this thought comes to me, I always speed up a little, as if to delay the inevitable.”
Durin concludes, “Beyond that, I hope the audience will enjoy the walk I’m offering them, and that they will want to take a stroll in the forest or in the mountains — or both, which is even better!”
Find out more about Durin at www.instagram.com/remi.durin/
Watch the film’s trailer below:
Trailer for Durin’s previous short Head in the Clouds:
Trailer for Durin’s feature Yuku and the Flower of the Himalayas.
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