Jacobus-Willem (Co) Hoedeman was born in Holland and left school at age 15 to work as a photograph retoucher in the printing industry but soon decided he would rather work in cinema. He started out at Multifilm, a small production company in Haarlem, and then moved to Cinecentrum in Hilversum, where he was assigned to the optical and special effects section. Not having enough to do, he also helped out in various other areas such as camera, laboratory and sound.During this time, he took evening courses at the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam and the School of Photography in The Hague. He was given increasingly complex work: transitions, models, commercials (design, sets, editing and directing).

In 1965 Hoedeman immigrated to Canada and was hired as a production assistant by the National Film Board. In 1967-68, he made the educational film Continental Drift. The recently created French Animation Studio then gave him the opportunity to make what he called his first "real" film, Oddball (1969), followed by Matrioska (1970) and Tchou-Tchou (1972).

In 1970, he spent four months in Czechoslovakia studying puppet animation. On his return, and working closely with artists from Iqaluit and Povungnituk, he used sealskin figures, soapstone carvings and drawings to make a series of animated films illustrating Inuit legends: The Man and the Giant, The Owl and the Lemming, The Owl and the Raven and Lumaaq.

Hoedeman received an Oscar in 1978 for The Sand Castle/Le Château de sable, an amusing fable peopled with bizarre little creatures created from foam rubber, wire and sand. It won 22 awards and has proved to be an enduring favourite.

More whimsical creatures, these shaped from papier-mâché, are featured in Masquerade (1985), a tale that illustrates the pitfalls and rewards of the creative process. Charles and Francois (1988), a touching film about aging and death, uses similar 3-D animation techniques in combination with paper cutouts and computer animation in a truly impressive set.

In 1992, Hoedeman gave a workshop for students aged 4 to 12 at Lafontaine elementary school in Montreal. The participants created their own video, called Les Droits de L'Enfant à Montréal, which depicted how the students saw children's rights. That same year, he made The Sniffing Bear/L'Ours renifleur, a cautionary tale about substance abuse based on an idea proposed by a group of Amerindian and Inuit inmates at La Macaza penitentiary. Co Hoedeman then worked on Le Jardin d'Écos/The Garden of Écos, a fable on ecology released in 1997 that explains how conflicts can upset the natural balance of ecosystems.

Hoedeman' next project was a quartet fo children's films featuring Ludovic. a lovable teddy bear who draws viewers into the magical world of childhood: The Snow Gift (1998), A Crocodile in My Garden (2000), Visiting Grandpa (2001) and Magic in the Air (2002).

In Mariannne's Theatre (2004), he plays with different levels of reality. The curtains of a theatre open to reveal a small puppet theatre presided over by Marianne. The ringmaster waves his baton and three shadowy acrobats climb out of his hat and each performs a number. But the ringmaster is himself a puppet; Hoedeman, a master of illusion, has created a show within a show within a film. In addition to the clever concept and masterful animation, this charming film offers a gift of magic that will delight children and adults alike.