Annecy



Annecy Festival International Du Film D’ Animation


The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the biggest festival for film animation in Europe this year received about 2000 entries, and had over 200 films featured in the competition. The most important attendees of festival must be about 7500 attendees from the animation worldwide industry. The Festival this year, dedicated to American animation industry depicted Walt Disney Production Animation Studios that occupied most of the space and program. The Opening Ceremony 6th of June included exclusive screenings of studio shorts by Pixar and Disney Productions. The Festival “Giant Screen” in front of the main building showed variety of Between Frames presentations providing the insight of the process of making great features. Festival provided many exhibitions that covered a variety of topics, from animation to production, computer graphics and the presentation of 18 special awards: the Crystal for short films and the Crystal for feature films, shown on a three main locations of Annecy.
Festival covers the great contrast of different interests and taste for all ages. The selection of films covered 10 feature films of Asian anime aimed for teenagers, 42 short films for mature audience, 59 graduation films and 71 TV and commissioned films and TV series’ and specials, covering educational and advertising aspects of films and music videos for the attendees who work in industry. All together about 35 short films and 6 feature films out of the competition on festival MIFA. MIFA Section is the animation industry section of festival. 8-10 June festival covered the selection of presentation area in order to intermediate between professionals in animation industry market and to launch new projects aimed for TV, movie industry or internet production.


As the leading professional international trade in France, this festival aimed for animation film: the program called MIFA gains great importance in the animation business industry every year. This year five European animation films made the nine-title in the competition, with a strong competition with Asian anime Japan's "Colorful", South Korea's "Green Days" and "The House" and "Tibetan Dog" from Chine. Asian competition includes "Green Days," by Han Hye-jin and An Jae-hoon, Masayuki Kojima's "Tibetan Dog," and "Colorful," Japan anime by Keiichi Hara and Tibetan fantasy drama "House." European competition included Denmark's Esben Toft Jacobsen's "The Great Bear," by Copenhagen Bombay, Latin jazz scene "Chico and Rita," which opened Cartoon Movie, and finally "A Cat in Paris," from French toon studio Folimage ("Mia and the Migoo"), Brit toon pic "Goodbye Mister Christie" and " Spain's "The Apostle."


The most attractive part of festival is with no doubts The lonely tunes and Mel Blancreturn to the silver screen Warner Bros Animation, with Three New 3D Theatrical Cartoon Shorts that opened the festival with legendary three new 3D/CG shorts from Warner Bros Animation here included my all time favorite Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, in 3D technology, visible only with special glasses. Three original Looney Tunes 3D theatrical cartoon shorts produced by Warner Bros, animated and directed by Matthew O’Callaghan (Coyote Falls) shown in a Grande Salle and were followed with mature audience mostly. Two of the new shorts — Daffy’s Rhapsody and I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat still featured voice of the late great Mel Blanc. The legendary actor/comedian known as The Man of a Thousand Voices brought to life some of the most well known characters in animation history during a celebrated career of six decades. Blanc on festival appeared in shorts, state-of-the-art CG animation and rendered in stereoscopic 3D in original songs recorded in the 1950s.


While Coyote’s epic quest to get the Road Runner gain a lot of attention on festival, Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux's The Rabbi's Cat won the Feature Film Crystal at the Annecy Animation Film Festival on Saturday. The Cat was judged by many to be one of the most striking French animation debuts lately. A Japanese drama cartoon about a soul reborn in the body of a suicidal teenager, Colorful won The Best Asian Anime Award in a feature film competition. In addition, another high-concept piece, Big Bang Big Boom from Italian artist Blue, won the
Special Jury Award.

You can read about more awards on the list at the end of article.

A Short Film Competition/
No matter of the great Disney production on the festival, critics and audience showed fanatstic interest for a handcrafted alternative of a computer-generated characters, coming from different countries and cultures. As part of the FIPRESCI Jury of Festival International Du Film D’ Animation, I would like to mention films in short film competition. FIPRESCI Jury really liked French short Patrick Jean's Pixels that won Annecy Crystal Short, film already well known in France. But first Award for The Best Short actually went to Kamil Polak's CG-animated The Lost Town of Switez. A stunning animation that uses fresco paintings converted into a digital 3D combined with CG animation, with special visual effects, to result a powerful aesthetically magnificent animation. The film conjoins literature and mediaeval fresco paintings as reference to massacre in a little town sank by the big wave into depths of lake in the mediaeval time. A short film competition of Annecy 2011 featured complex and very thematically engaged animations. FIPRESCI Award this year went to Luminaris (Luminaris), directed by Juan Pablo Zaramella, illustrator and graphic artist from Argentina. Luminaris (Luminaris) features a man who takes control of the robotic world of contemporary and brings light into his own life, story depicted with great humor. The same animation also won Prix du public (Audience Award). Another Polish animation caught to my attention but ended with no award is Millhaven (Millhaven) directed by Bartek Kulas, minimalist and gloomy animation featuring Nick Cave's dark ballad (of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds band), song in the animation performed by Polish Katarzyna Groniec. It is a surreal story about 15-year-old Loretta who committed a serial of murders. This animation has been heavily awarded on other festivals in Poland and certainly deserves all the attention. I would mention an interesting animation by British artists Grant Orchard Morning Stroll, futuristic story that won the Prix du Jury junior pour un court metrage on festival.


There were many animations that I really liked, but ended with no awards. For instance, that would be animations coming from Australia called Nullarbor by Auster (Colin) Lochart and Patric Sarell, original and innovative drafts of the old comic book style art graphics, but with hardly any story in. I would also mention animation that left great impression on me, directed by Irish woman director Maria-Elena Doyle, with film production from New Zealand, with a New Zealand story called Meniscus. Story featured with almost no animation and also no tangible story on the surface, but very impressive visual effective female sensual interpretation of an old Maori folk story. The story is based on Maori poem about souls that are coming from the beneath tree roots and come out to jump over the cliff into the see, in order to cross over.


Eventually, I would mention A Lost And Found Box of Human Sensation directed by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg and its powerful and great production and aesthetic of 2D/3D computer generated character of a young man that needs to cope with his father’s death, on a different ways. Animation has a powerful story, an emotional journey presented with a wonderful 3D and wonderful aesthetic, style and very memorable characters. The animation followed by great marketing and production featuring narrator Joseph Fiennes.
FIPRESCI Jury of the
Festival International Du Film D’ Animation:
1)- Gabriel Barrera, professor of film from
the University of Turin, Italy.
2)- Mathilde Lorit, film critic from the
French Rolling Stone and
3)- Radmila Djurica, an independent film,
theatre and art critic from Serbia.



The Awards of Festival International Du Film D’Animation
(words from the festival)

There were several moments, which made this 35th edition particularly special. Notably, the world exclusive sneak previews of some of the latest short films from Pixar (La Luna), Disney(The Ballad of Nessie) and Warner Bros. (Coyote Falls and Rabid Rider).The Works in Progress were also a great success, offering the chance to discover previously unseen footage and artwork from Space Pirate – Captain Harlock, the 3D feature currently in production at Toei Animation. Equally popular was the session about the touching tale of passion and differences, The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, with Mathias Malzieu – who was also on the jury for feature films. There were several highlights within the official events including the awards ceremony and launch of the second YouTube competition, attended by the Minister for Culture and Communication Mr Frédéric Mitterand, the outdoor screenings on the Pâquier, the concert of Bob Sinclar and Big Ali: the surprise screening of some first footage from A Monster in Paris, the next film by Bibo Bergeron, along with an improvised set from singer/songwriter Matthieu Chedid, the announcement of the production of some new Looney Tunes by the Warner Studios and the visit of Leiji Matsumoto, the legendary creator of Captain Harlock.


The 35th edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival finished in style with the 2011 awards ceremony! Moreover, the winners are:
Feature films
The Crystal for best feature
THE RABBI’S CAT by Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux (France)
AUTOCHENILLE PRODUCTION, FRANCE 3 CINÉMA, TF1 INTERNATIONAL
Special Distinction
Audience Award
COLORFUL by Keiichi Hara ( Japan)
FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK INC.
The members of the jury were: Marc du Pontavice (Producer), Mathias Malzieu
(Director), Yoshihiro Shimizu (Producer).
Short films
The Annecy Crystal
PIXELS by Patrick Jean (France)
ONE MORE PRODUCTION
Special Jury Award
BIG BANG BIG BOOM by BLU (Italy)
"Jean-Luc Xiberras" Award for a first film
THE LOST TOWN OF SWITEZ, by Kamil Polak (Poland, France, Canada, Switzerland and Denmark)
HUMAN ARK, SE-MA-FOR FILM PRODUCTION, TELEWIZJA POLSKA SA, PWSFTVIT – THE
POLISH NATIONAL FILM, TELEVISION AND THEATRE SCHOOL, DENIS FRIEDMAN PRODUCTIONS,
NFB, ARCHANGEL FILM GROUP, PARTYFLEX SYSTEM, ZELIONY POMIDOR
Special Distinction
PATHS OF HATE by Damian Nenow (Poland)
PLATIGE IMAGE SP. 20.0
Sacem Award for original music
MASKA by the Quay Brothers, with music by Krzysztof Penderecki (Poland)
SE-MA-FOR FILM PRODUCTION, POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE
Junior Jury Award for a short film
A MORNING STROLL by Grant Orchard (Great Britain)
STUDIO AKA
Audience Award
LUMINARIS by Juan Pablo Zaramella (Argentina)
JPZTUDIO
The members of the jury were: Aleksandra Korejwo (Director), Regina Pessoa (Director)
IN ADDITION, PES (Director).
TV and commissioned films
The Crystal for best TV production
THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL "THE QUEST" by Mic Graves and Ben Bocquelet
(Great Britain and France)
DANDELION STUDIOS
Special Award for a TV series
LITTLE NICK "AT PLAYTIME WE FIGHT" by Arnaud Bouron (France, Luxembourg and India)
M6 STUDIO, METHOD ANIMATION
Award for best TV special
PRINCESS’S PAINTING by Joannes Weiland and Klaus Morschheuser (Germany)
STUDIO SOI GMBH & CO. KG FILMPRODUKTION
Educational, scientific or industrial film Award
HOW TO FEED THE WORLD? by Denis Van Waerebeke (France)
MONTAG, CITÉ DES SCIENCES ET DE L’INDUSTRIE
Advertising or promotional film Award
CANAL J "ROYAUME DU GNAGNAGNA" by Olivier Jeannel (France)
WANDA PRODUCTIONS
Award for best music video
WAX TAILOR FEATURING CHARLIE WINSTON "I OWN YOU" by Romain Chassaing (France)
SO LAB
The members of the jury were: Laurence Blaevoet (Director of the Canal+ Youth Unit),
Lucineh Kassarjian (Artistic Director) and Tapaas Chakravarti (Producer).
Graduation films
Award for best graduation film
PLATO by Léonard Cohen (France)
ENSAD
Special Jury Award
TROIS PETITS POINTS by Lucrèce Andreae, Alice Dieudonné, Tracy Nowocien, Florian Parrot,
Ornélie Prioul and Rémy Schaepman (France)
GOBELINS, L’ÉCOLE DE L’IMAGE
Special Distinction
THE EAGLEMAN STAG by Mikey Please (Great Britain)
ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART
Junior Jury Award for a graduation film
PLATO by Léonard Cohen (France)
ENSAD
The members of the jury were: Matthew O’Callaghan (Director), David Sproxton
(Producer) and Will Vinton (Director).




The Awards of Festival International Du Film D’Animation
CITIA
BP 399, 74013 Annecy Cedex, France
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Aussi pour cette occasion je voudrais que cette occasion pour remercier M. Patrick Even, Serge Bromberg, Tiziana Loschi, Laethitia Masley Festival ;Annecy et toute équipe pour tout. Aussi pour la coopération réussie avec Gabriel Barrera et Mathilde Lorit!