Jean-François Laguionie (born October 10, 1939 in Besançon) is a French animator, film director and producer of animation. Laguionie was originally interested in theatre but his encounter with Paul Grimault gave him the opportunity to learn the techniques of animated film. Though they were very close to each other, Paul Grimault and Jean-François Laguionie rarely worked together (though Grimault produced Laguionie's first three shorts). Jean-François Laguionie then directed several short films, climaxing with the now famous La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame (Rowing across the Atlantic) (1978), which won the César Award for best short animated film in 1979. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia