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. They also co-founded the award-winning cinema production company a_BAHN and the immersive art studio VELVET FLARE.
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.
Continuing their plastic research in the field of hybridization of forms, the Blies brothers are currently developing, in collaboration with PHI Studio, a branch of the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, a cultural center dedicated to avant-garde digital arts, in Montreal (Canada), the artistic installation Ceci est mon coeur.
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).
