FRANÇOIS SÉGUIN
Production Designer / Art Director / Set Decorator
Born in 1951 in Montreal, Quebec, François Séguin has earned international acclaim for his production design in film, theatre, opera, circus, and television. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous nominations and honours in Canada and abroad including five Genie Awards, and four Prix Jutras.
From an early age, Séguin was drawn to filmmakers working outside the Hollywood system. Directors such as Dziga Vertov, Jean-Luc Godard, and Michelangelo Antonioni offered innovative avenues for a more authentic reflection of contemporary society. At age 15 he took his first job in theatre as an usher at the Comédie-Canadienne theatre. (now the TNM) He followed his friend Louis Saïa into theatre school but quickly realised he preferred to work behind the scenes. From 1971 to 1974, he studied set design (scenography) at Collège Lionel-Groulx, learning to combine his love of craftsmanship with his vision for evocative stage design.
François Séguin, 2017 Photo : Jan Thijs
After three years at Théâtre du Rideau Vert working under renowned costume designer François Barbeau he began work as a freelancer – “pigiste” – for companies such as Theatre d”aujourdhui, La Nouvelle Compagnie Théâtrale (NCT), Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, and Théâtre de Quat’Sous, Theatre Francaise, and with Andre Brassard, at the National Arts Center (Centre National des Arts (Ottawa). His first jobs in set design were at the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, working first with Jean-Claude Germain and later with Claude Jutras. In 1976 he work as a Set Designer for Director Francis Mankiewicz’s play Une amie d’enfance. The play was developed into a film in 1978, with Séguin’s getting his first job as Set Designer for film. In 1986 he received his first Genie Award nomination (the first of 16 nominations) for Production Design on Lewis Furey’s Night Magic and by 1990 he’d won his first Genie for his work on Denys Arcand’s Jésus de Montréal (1989).
In 1988 while working in Toronto on the film Milk and Honey Séguin joined the Directors Guild of Canada, then a relatively new union which had yet to establish a branch in Quebec. Since that time he has collaborated with most of Quebec’s significant directors. He was nominated for his Art Direction on Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Léolo (1992) and worked on seven films with Denys Arcand, including Les invasions barbares (2003) and Testament (2023).
Séguin maintained a long-standing creative relationship with François Girard, working on production design for five of his films, most notably The Red Violin in1998 whose wide-spread success brought Séguin the attention of producers from the United States and abroad. He designed six theatre productions with Girard as well, including Lost Objects (2001), The Seven Deadly Sins (2006) and Émilie (2010) as well as collaborating on Girard’s Tokyo production of Zed for Cirque du Soleil in 2008.
Throughout his illustrious career, Séguin remained dedicated to his craft, shaping the visual language of countless productions and leaving an indelible mark on both Canadian and international cinema, television, theatre, and performing arts.
“Portrait de François Séguin” La Presse 2007
Representation Online:
Cinematheque Quebeçois: Online Collection
book excerpt: Inside the Historical Film – By Bruno Ramirez
lesgens du cinema
Danish Film Institute