Mélissa Petitjean has amassed hundreds of credits in sound design, editing and mixing, with work in live-action and animation for film, television and other platforms. In 2018, she was made a Knight of the French National Order of Merit, nominated by the head of France’s National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) for her commitment and her remarkable contribution to French cinema through sound.
Drawn to sound engineering by her training as a classical violinist and her love of science, in 2002, Mélissa Petitjean graduated from France’s globally ranked film school, La Fémis. Her first job as lead sound mixer on a feature came soon after, with Eléonore Faucher’s BRODEUSES (A COMMON THREAD), winner of the 2004 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Since then, she has worked with an expansive roster of film directors and for television programming on networks ARTE, Disney+ and France 5, among others.
Mélissa Petitjean won the 2014 César for Best Sound for MICHAEL KOHLHAAS, the first of four collaborations with filmmaker Arnaud des Pallières, including the upcoming CAPTIVES, which premiered in 2024. Her 2023 projects included Nathan Ambrosioni’s award-winning feature TONI, EN FAMILLE; Raoul Peck’s Amazon Original documentary, SILVER DOLLAR ROAD; LE PARADIS (THE LOST BOYS) by Zeno Graton, which debuted at the Berlin Film Festival. She also collaborated with Nobel Prize Winner Annie Ernaux for LES ANNEES SUPER 8, the film she made with her son David.
Additionally, Mélissa Petitjean regularly mixes the French versions of major film and television titles from the United States, Europe, Korea, Japan and elsewhere, with a list comprising every genre. Examples range from Bong Joon Ho’s PARASITE, winner of four Oscars including Best Picture and the Palme d’or at Cannes, to the American animated satire SOUTH PARK, multiple anime series and numerous shows for Netflix and HBO.
Throughout her career, Mélissa Petitjean has been teaching the art and science of sound, at her alma mater La Fémis since 2007, at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière, at La Cinéfabrique, and at Morocco’s renowned Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels de Marrakech since 2008.
In 2023, Mélissa Petitjean became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.