"Mr Hublot" has won the Oscar for best animated short film. It's director, Laurent Witz, thanked Stéphane Halleux, a sculptor from Namur, when receiving the award at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. In fact, he's the one who created the character Mr Hublot.

The film relates the encounter between an old man who hates change and never leaves his house, and an abandoned dog that's about to turn his life upside down. Living together will take on completely unexpected proportions… the story unfolds in a post-industrial world where nature has totally disappeared from the landscape. The characters, both machines and humans, all drive ridiculously excessive futuristic vehicles.

This absurd universe was conjured up by Stéphane Halleux. This timeless artist, who lives in Hamois (a province of Namur), has for years collected miscellaneous items (scrap, leather, suede, wood etc.) to give life to characters and machines that immerse us in an "out-moded" future which, beyond its anachronism, highlights the complexity of our time and anticipates the changes in our environment.

"Mr Hublot" is widely recognized by the profession. He has already won about ten international awards and this Oscar now crowns three years of hard work. With exceptional quality graphics, "Mr Hublot" is above all the result of an extraordinary adventure led by a team of artists and specialist technicians: Stéphane Halleux wrote the first script; Laurent Witz adapted it for the purposes of the film and produced the short, which was co-directed by Alexander Espigares, applying his experience as a 3D animator.