PIPOU PHUONG NGUYEN

Director of the Short Animated Film The Boy Who Cheated Death

Pipou Phuong Nguyen was the Best Short Film Award Winner at the Russian Film Festival South Africa International, now known as Imperiya Film Festival South Africa International, in Season 1, for her beautiful short animated film The Boy Who Cheated Death.

THE BOY WHO CHEATED DEATH

This extraordinary short film tells the story of Syd. He is a little boy who tries to protect his mother from Death. To do this, he imagines a game of hide and seek. They transform into creatures of the Earth such as birds, animals, and sea life. Together, they try to escape Death. But Death keeps changing. In the end, it becomes the ultimate predator, Time.

Blurring the lines between reality and imagination, the film is a breathtaking meditation on grief, memory, and love. Pipou’s animation style is unmistakable. Drawing from 2D/3D animation, stop motion, puppetry, AR/VR, and oil painting, she weaves each frame with symbolic detail. Using everything from underwater clay to glitter fog and wool dolls, she builds an emotionally immersive world that echoes a child’s logic and dreamscape.

A GAME AGAINST THE INEVITABLE

Though fantastical in design, The Boy Who Cheated Death is deeply personal for Pipou. The idea began with a simple thought, “What if a boy tried to hide his mother from Death by playing a game?” But what followed was an obsession, how to turn that haunting image into a full story. The result is a film that doesn’t just tell a story, it feels like memory, grief, childhood, and healing.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR PIPOU?

Pipou works as a freelance director and animator on 2D and stop motion projects in France and Vietnam, while developing new short films, including an upcoming stop motion film about a young messenger during the American Vietnam War.

PIPOU PHUANG NGUYEN BIO

Pipou Phuong Nguyen is a Vietnamese director and animation mixologist based in Paris. Passionate about animation as a total art form, she blends eclectic universes and visual textures into what she calls Pipou-esque storytelling. Her work combines 2D/3D animation, stop motion, puppetry, oil painting, and AR/VR techniques to express emotional depth and sensory richness. She graduated from Gobelins Paris with a master’s degree in animated filmmaking.

GOODBYE ROBIN (2020)

I’M READY TO BE ANY ANIMAL THAT’S WHISTLED (2021)

THE BOY WHO CHEATED DEATH

Her notable short films include Goodbye Robin! (2020), I’m Ready to be any Animal that’s Whistled (2021), Celestial Serpent (2025), and The Boy Who Cheated Death (2025), each reflecting her evolving artistic vision and fearless exploration of emotion, memory, and imagination.