Director/Producer Victor Pigasse Paves His Own Path
There’s a great deal of crosspollination in the film community but as they saying goes, you “can’t be all things to all people” and most fall into a particular title. While Victor Pigasse is fond of the label of “producer”, he’s comfortable coloring outside those lines. Producer is perhaps the most versatile of all roles in the industry and Victor certainly challenges the boundaries which define it. While his Master of Finance degree makes him particularly well equipped for the scrutinizing of metrics in various ways, his inclination for creative thought makes him a coveted collaborator of other filmmakers. From his early time at Les Films du Worso in Paris to his recent work on the film How I learned to Die (executive produced by Spike Lee) to the upcoming release of his first feature film Game of Love (which he personally wrote, produced, and directed) Mr. Pigasse truly personifies the moniker filmmaker.
A balance of the creative and practical sides of the mind is a rare thing in any industry but even more rare in the arts. Even while pursuing his finance degree at Sciences Po Paris, Victor felt the compulsion to create. His five-episode web series Pipo amassed 35,000 views; enough to wet his appetite for storytelling. As part of the financing department at Les Films du Worso, working on feature films such as Les Gardiennes, the Silver Bear Award–Winning La Priere, and others, Victor was exposed to film production on a grand scale. Les Films Du Worso is one of the most respected film production companies in France having produced such acclaimed films as the Oscar Award–Nominated Timbuktu (2014) which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won seven Cesar awards (the French version of the Academy Award). Pivoting quickly, Mr. Pigasse went to work at LA based Iconoclast to explore the Hollywood experience. This award-winning production company is the force behind filmmakers like Oscar Award Winning Director Gus Van Sant (on Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot), the French directing collective We Are From LA (music video directors of Pharrell Williams’ Grammy Award–Winning “Happy”), and numerous others. Known for working on commercials for such internationally recognizable brands as Nike Coca Cola, Mercedes, and Apple, the Iconoclast experience was a time for Victor to witness the American process; one which prompted him to delve deeper.
Creating a video series for French based Meditect, a company which has created an app to detect counterfeit medicine in West Africa, or meeting with EP Spike Lee to discuss strategies for the Manya Glassman film How I Learned To Die, Victor Pigasse exhibits that he’s adventurous as producer/filmmaker. He professes, “I want to make universal stories. I want to make movies and TV shows that can entertain and be seen by the most people possible. I do believe that the more personal the story is, the more universal it will be. Furthermore, it’s not because I want to be an artist that creates universal stories that my movies are not intimate or artistic. I feel we usually oppose those two concepts where I think they can be similar.” The creation of his first feature film Game of Love communicates the validity of this intention. A comedy of errors taking place in one single evening, Game of Love is about miscommunication and how romance is hard to direct (no pun intended). Adamant that honesty is essential to great filmmaking, Victor imparts, “My stories always deal with the search for love and the struggle to find it. It can create very funny, awkward, tragic, traumatizing, and memorable situations that all of us can relate to in one way or another. I try to draw from my experiences and my friends’ experiences to write these stories. I do feel I have a unique tone and perspective that I’m bringing to these films but I don’t feel the need to ‘inform’ on a particular subject matter. Maybe later in my career I will want to make movies where I would want to relay a particular message or inform the spectators about a particular subject matter but I don’t think that is the case now. I want to make the spectators feel emotion and laugh and cry.” An indication of the greatness of Game of Love is found in the fact that it was already awarded the 2024–2025 Clive Davis Award for Excellence in Music in Film.
