Held in the French Alps this year, the Annecy Animation Festival was a complete success based on the rise in attendance and the positive stir created for animation as a medium.
Mickaël Marin, the CEO of the Festival and MIFA organizer CITIA, spoke to Variety about his thoughts on the increase in attendance where he claimed it demonstrated “the extraordinary dynamism of the animation industry; more and more countries producing: our support of a lot of talents in emerging countries who want to come, of course; the [year-round outreach] in terms of meetings, and the official selection.”
Given the recent interest in mainstream animation films like Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has received, discussions surrounding the two at the festival would often focus on how experimental the animation styles are, which demonstrates that there is an appreciation and even a craving for this art form beyond catering to general audiences. Jeff Rowe, co-director of Mutant Mayhem, stated: “Right now, things like ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ are this Trojan horse – they are taking a well-known IP and using that to break artistic boundaries and move the medium forward. My hope is that the studios will take these kinds of risks also with original ideas.”
Typically, this experimentation of art would be left to independent artists or studios, but the push of such projects within mainstream studios is telling of where the industry could go. This is already seen with Netflix’s Nimona, Warner Bros. Animation’s Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrims, Banijay’s Shasha & Milo, Sony’s Fixed, and the upcoming film The Bird Kingdom.
Besides these discussions, there already appears to be an Academy Award Frontrunner. This is seen in the highly praised short 2D film 27 by Hungary’s Flora Anna Buda. The film touches on the themes of sensuality, and growing up as a 27-year-old Alice, who still lives under her parent’s roof, begins to have fantasies.
Due to the festival’s immense popularity this year, there were many more features regarding international animation. Hungry has especially been finding success in recent years, and it has become a force o be reckoned with. Legendary Mexican director Guillermo del Torro announced another stop-motion film in the works with Netflix. Additionally, anime was celebrated to a greater extent due to it being cemented as a valuable and necessary art form within the field, as non-Japanese studios take more inspiration from it and as it expands its boundaries and stories.
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