The idea for Un jour came, says its 24-year-old director, Marie Paccou, from a single sentence - "One day, a man entered my belly" - and an accompanying image: that of a woman with a little man sticking out of her belly. Paccou, who was born in Dakar, Senegal, studied literature in Bordeaux, then attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1993-97, and began studying animation at the Royal College of Art in London in 1997. This, her first film, was completed in February this year, using Tic Tac Toon software, and has won prizes at Imagina in Monte Carlo (the Special Jury Prize and the Prix Pixel INA), Tampere (Grand Prix), Stuttgart (Prix Mercedes Benz) and Hamburg (Special Prize). "I chose to do animation because I love stories.The power of a good story is that it immediately enters the imaginary life of the listener. I don't really know why, but stories promote an inner understanding of people and things. Beneath their harmless exteriors, stories are a very effective means of communication. In the course of my studies in graphic art, my taste for stories led me towards engraving, illustration and animation.The story of Un jour was first conceived for an illustrated book. But I think animation more easily opens a door into our imaginary lives because there is no object to get in the way. A book or an engraving stays real because you can touch it. But a film... It's a marvellous way to tell stories, because you grab the spectator directly by the eyes and by the ears." - Marie Paccou -