The Annecy International Animation Film Festival kicks off Sunday in the French Alps, and nearly every major studio and streaming platform is making the trip.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this year's edition packs six days of premieres, panels and sneak peeks, running alongside the three-day MIFA industry market from June 23 through 26. The festival is both a fan event and an industry hub, covering everything from major Hollywood releases to independent animation voices from around the world.
The festival opens June 21 with the world premiere of Minions and Monsters, the third film in the Illumination and Universal franchise and the only major Hollywood feature launching at the event this year. It closes June 27 with Lysistrata, the final, posthumous short film from legendary animator Richard Williams, the director behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Thief and the Cobbler.
Between those bookends, there is a packed slate. The first two episodes of Bandai Namco Filmworks' new Ghost in the Shell anime series screen June 22. Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall, from director Jeff Wamester, represents the first entry in a new series of digital-first animated features from Warner Bros. Animation and screens June 23. President Curtis, the Rick and Morty spinoff from Adult Swim, premieres June 24.
Among the award contenders drawing attention are In Waves, directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, which premiered at Cannes and was acquired by Netflix worldwide outside France, and Tangles, a biographical drama produced by and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Seth Rogen, directed by Leah Nelson. Iron Boy, from French director Louis Clichy, which won the Special Jury Prize in Cannes's Un Certain Regard section, is also in the lineup, along with Muyi, a Chinese-set 2D drama from French director Julien Chheng.
On the studio presentation side, Aardman will hold a special session Sunday featuring co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton, four-time Oscar-winning director Nick Park, and studio CCO Sarah Cox, walking the audience through 50 years of the British claymation studio's history. On Monday, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation President and CCO Bill Damaschke will unveil the division's new lineup and offer a look at corporate strategy following the WB-Paramount merger.
Catalonia is sending 11 titles to Annecy this year, spanning both the festival and the MIFA market, according to Variety. Among them is the next film from Bruno Simões, whose short Pip became YouTube's all-time most-watched animation short with 540 million views. Also featured is Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope, a chronicle of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda's role in a historic refugee rescue mission, and Because Today is Saturday, from Portugal's Alice Eça Guimarães, which won the Tallinn Grand Prix and also plays at Tribeca.
Deadline, which will have reporters on the ground in Annecy, noted that AI, China, and the next generation of intellectual property are among the major industry talking points heading into the festival. Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Universal are all expected in full force, with additional titles including a new Ghostbusters series and Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie on show.
