Yann Chapotel studied cinema at the Institut Supérieur d’Etudes Cinématographiques and then at University Paris VIII. In 1994 he directed his first short film, The Girl at the Window, shot during a three- month trip to India.

Having trained in the various professions of image and sound on film sets, in 1999 Chapotel staged his second short film, Ricochet, with the help of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire. Other short films followed, most experimenting around the theme of time and how it is represented, and many being nominated for and winning awards.

In 2007 he started work on editing a series of films about artist Camille Henrot. These included Le Songe de Poliphile, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, and Grosse fatigue and

Lion d’argent, shown at the 2013 Venice Biennale. In 2012, he began a collaboration with Le Balcon. In 2015 he created video projections for two operas directed by Jacques Osinski at the Athénée Théâtre Louis- Jouvet – Avenida de Los Incas 3518 by Fernando Fizsbein and Lohengrin by Salvatore Sciarrino. In 2016, scenographer Richard Peduzzi invited him to design and produce videos to animate Chaumet’s exhibition in the Forbidden City in Beijing.