Pierre Huyghe was educated at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Graphiques et Décoratifs. Much of Huyghe's work examines the structural properties of film and its problematic relationship to reality. His work frequently mixes fact with fiction. In several projects, he has delved into the personal lives of subjects and actors in film.

By filming staged scenarios such as a re-creation of the true-life bank robbery featured in the movie Dog Day Afternoon Huyghe probes the capacity of cinema to distort and ultimately shape memory. While blurring the traditional distinction between fiction and reality, and revealing the experience of fiction to be as palpable as anything in daily life, Huyghe's playful work often addresses complex social topics such as the yearning for utopia, the lure of spectacle in mass media, and the impact of Modernism on contemporary values and belief systems.