The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which starts on June 11, expressed its “support for the families and the victims” of the knife attack which left six injured, including four children.
Three days after the attack which sowed fear in Annecy, the city will try to find a little lightness by hosting its international animation festival on Sunday June 11, where the craze around the Ninja Turtles or the centenary of Disney will be combined with that of works for adults, in full swing.
As of Thursday, June 8, the management and the festival team have expressed their “stupor”addressing in a press release their “thoughts” to the victims of the stabbing which injured six people, including four very young children.
Given the “isolated character” of the attack, they have since decided to maintain the main world meeting of animation, placed “under the sign of the values he has always defended: sharing, solidarity and fraternity”to welcome more than 13,000 participants until June 17th.
Solidarity with the victims of the knife attack
However, the launch of the outdoor sessions has been postponed to Monday, June 12 “as a sign of support for the families and the victims”. Little Nicolas, what are we waiting for to be happy? In particular, should have been screened on Sunday near Lake Annecy, a year after winning the Cristal d’Or there.
Eleven feature films, a record, are in the running to succeed him, including Sirocco and the Kingdom of Currents of air by Benoît Chieux, which opens the ball on Sunday and follows two sisters trapped in the universe of their favorite book.
This will be followed by films for adults, such as Mermaid by Iranian dissident Sepideh Farsi on the Iran-Iraq war, the sci-fi thriller Mars Express by Frenchman Jérémie Perin, Art College 1994 by the Chinese Liu Jian, and more child-friendly works, such as Kensuke’s Kingdomtaken from the eponymous bestseller of the British Michael Morpurgo.
Out of competition, Disney, which is celebrating its centenary this year, will present the first images of its end-of-year film, Wish, Asha and the lucky star. The studio with big ears will also offer a lesson in cinema from its cartoonist Eric Goldberg (Aladdin“Pocahontas...) and a projection of Elementarythe new Pixar that closed the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
Guillermo del Toro’s Mexico in the spotlight
Director Guillermo del Toro, Oscar winner in March for Pinocchiowill return to Annecy to represent Mexico, the country of honor at this 47th edition, also in the colors of “pride and diversity”.
Another highlight was the screening of a work-in-progress version of Ninja Turtles: Teenage Years (Paramount and Nickelodeon), on the adolescence of Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphaël, co-produced by American comedian Seth Rogen.
There will be a behind-the-scenes presentation of the Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, by Japanese Kenji Kamiyama. This new version of Tolkien’s universe, set 250 years before the events of Peter Jackson’s trilogy, is due out in 2024.
Other films unveiled in preview will land more quickly in theaters or on platforms, such as the next Dreamworks, Ruby the Teen Kraken (June 28), or Nimonaadaptation of a comic book by ND Stevenson available on June 30 on Netflix, also at the origin of a sequel to chicken run.
A sector that is “still living a golden age”
Many conferences dedicated to works as diverse as the crazy “Rick and Morty” or the cute “Bluey” will punctuate a week which, with the market related to the festival, will make it possible to take the pulse of the sector.
This one lives”always a golden agereassures Mickaël Marin, the director of the organizer Citia. “There are more transgenerational audiences, many more productions” iinternational beyond the United States/Japan/France podium, while streaming platforms have encouraged the rise of adult animation “with films that elsewhere would never have seen the light of day”he told AFP.
And this, even if these platforms, in difficulty after flamboyant years of growth, seem to slow down their orders, “refocusing” for some on “quality over quantity”. Proof that the sector is doing well: it’s an animated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versepartially unveiled at Annecy last year, which is dominating the French and North American box offices this week.