Nicolas Blies & Stéphane Hueber-Blies
Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (Blies brothers) are two French filmmakers and digital artists who create their works together.
In 2015, they conceptualized the documentary music transmedia Soundhunters in co-production with ARTE. Soundhunters was imagined to transform the world into an infinite musical instrument. The transmedia is released in 2015 in collaboration with many international artists including Jean Michel Jarre, Simonne Jones or Blixa Bargeld. In 2016, the Blies brothers are invited to present their work at Lincoln Center during the New York Film Festival. The project is placed in 2016 under the high patronage of UNESCO.
In 2019, they wrote and directed their first feature film Zero Impunity about the impunity of sexual violence in wartime (Thessaloniki IFF, Annecy IFF, Moscow IFF, Mostra de Sao Paulo, Guadalajara IFF, Palm Springs IFF...). Hybridizing animation and live action, the film is considered one of the precursors in the field, particularly for its ability to « Figuring the unmentionable ». The Blies brothers were invited by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to participate in the traditional “Cinema Masterclass” of the festival to talk about the issue of “sexual violence in animation”. In 2021, the film was nominated for the Trophées Francophones du Cinéma in the “Best Documentary” category.
In 2024, the Blies brothers released the digital art installation This Is My Heart (Ceci est mon coeur), about the reconciliation of a child with his body, mixing video-mapping and connected clothing. Following Zero Impunity, here again they hybridize animation and live action. For the first time, they also use a technique akin to “Spoken Word”. Combining Stéphane’s poetic writing with Nicolas’s musical creations, they explore a fusion of words and rhythms at the service of storytelling. The World Premiere of This Is My Heart take place during the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
The Blies brothers decided to pursue their research into Spoken word and visual hybridization in the development of their first feature-length film Maman Sopra.
Jury
In 2020, the Blies brothers are members of the feature film jury section “Contrechamp” of the 44th International Animation Film Festival of Annecy. In 2018, Nicolas Blies is a member of the jury section “National Documentary” and Stéphane Hueber-Blies member and president of the section “Innovation Award” at the 31st International Festival of Audiovisual Production of Biarritz (FIPA).
