In early February, the French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet accused Guillermo del Toro of plagiarism: he allegedly stole ideas for several scenes of the film "The Shape of the Water" from his paintings "Amelie" and "Delicacies". After learning about such claims Zhenya, the discussion decided to intervene another director, Sebastian Nuzzo: he said that Zhenya has no right to reproach someone for plagiarism, as he himself is seen in the theft of ideas.

Nuzzo is the author of a short film titled "Lucille and a Photobook", published in 1993 in France. The 17-minute film took part in film festivals and was shown several times on French television before Amelie appeared on the screen. Nuzzo's film tells of a girl who once finds pictures of an unknown man in a photo camera and decides to find him:

at the end it turns out that a stranger is a person who repairs pictures. Exactly the same story line is in the movie "Amelie".

Nuzzo is convinced that it was his painting that became the basis for the film Zhene. In addition to the plot, other elements are also stolen, says the director: for example, the character traits of the main character and the use of voice narration. As Les Inrocks writes, in the early 2000s, Nuzzo even tried to sue Zhenya, but the court eventually disagreed with his claims.