a flying start with “Spiderman” featured

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the first images of the highly anticipated Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse and announced a record number of accreditations at its opening on Monday, a sign of the sector’s vitality.

For its return to a totally face-to-face edition, the festival filled up with 13,000 accredited people, 5% more than in 2019, from 100 countries, announced its director Mickaël Marin. This record “is consistent with the animation boom globally”he commented, considering that the sector “do not know the crisis”.

This number is reached without Chinese professionals, prevented from coming by the health crisis, and without Russians, who until then held one of the main pavilions at the film market, but whose official delegation is no longer invited since the invasion of Ukraine. Several Ukrainian professionals, on the other hand, were graciously welcomed, said Michael Marin, and several countries are present for the first time including Malawi, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Before the screening Monday evening at the opening of the film Minions 2 – Once upon a time Gruthe festival fueled the buzz with the presentation by its directors of the first images of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versea year before its worldwide release.

With a revelation: the name of the “supervillain” of the film, “The Spot”, “with a body covered in dots like ink stains”, which he can use to travel between universes or as a weapon, pointed out one of the co-directors, Justin Thompson. His voice, in the original version, is entrusted to actor Jason Schwartzman, a regular with Wes Anderson (Darjeeling Express, The Grand Budapest Hotel…).

Meet The Spot, Miles Morales’ most formidable foe yet. Voiced by Jason Schwartzman, see him in action in Spider-Man: Across the #SpiderVerseexclusively in movie theaters June 2, 2023. pic.twitter.com/1aAmMjMcpX

—Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (@SpiderVerse) June 13, 2022

After the Oscar for best animated film won in 2019 by the first part, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony studios promise even more visual effects for a film mixing as many 2D and 3D animation techniques and different graphic styles as possible. In total, the film will have 240 new characters evolving in six parallel universes.

The festival is due to end on Saturday June 18, with the presentation of the Golden Crystal to the best film in competition.

Annecy Festival 2022, from June 13 to 18.