Introduction
Hey, hey, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here for yet another special article and today, I am talking about what many describe as the Cannes Film Festival of Animation, and perhaps the most prestigious and most important animation-centric film festival of the calendar. That’s right, we’re talking about the Annecy International Film Festival!
Held every June at the French Alps town of Annecy, the Annecy Festival draw in animation fans, studios and others from all around the world for a week of showcasing the best that animation has to offer, whether it is upcoming animated movies, animated shorts and even virtual reality works!
Well, just recently, Annecy has announced the feature films that will be showcased at the festival across two competition categories and three out-of-competition categories. They are as follows:
- Official Competition: The animated movies competing in the festival’s official competition, featuring some of the most exciting and upcoming animated movies of 2024.
- Contrechamp: While there are no criteria for which animated movies compete in this category, the animated movies selected are ones that are offering something unique and different, whether it is the concept, the writing or animation style.
- Annecy Presents: A brand new out-of-competition selection where the movies don’t fit into the Competition line-up, but are great enough to be showcased at the festival. Most of these movies are good quality animated movies for the family and general audience.
- Screening Events: Annecy holds special screenings and first looks at some of the movies that will also be showcased, including some upcoming animated movies at various showcases.
- Midnight Screenings: The “after-dark” section of Annecy 2024, this section covers the more mature and the more experimental out-of-competition animated movies, not suitable for the typical family audience at all (although that said, this section is already facing backlash over the inclusion of “Who Said Death is Beautiful?“, a Japanese “animated movie” that heavily uses A/I tools such as Stable Diffusion, and rightly so. Considering how much I hate this inclusion and the backlash is already massive, the less said about it, the better. Hence, this will be the only mention of this “slop” that I refuse to consider an “animated movie”).
In terms of the animated movies in the five line-ups, I had already watched and reviewed a few of those movies or have featured them in my 2024 Non-Mainstream and Foreign CG Animated Movies Watchlist, so I will not mention them again in this article. Those movies are:
- The Storm (Competition)
- The Imaginary (Competition)
- The Missing (Contrechamp)
- Diplodocus (Annecy Presents)
- The Garfield Movie (Annecy Presents)
- Chang An (Screening Events)
- Spermaggedon (Midnight Screenings)
With that said, today, I will talk about five of my most anticipated animated movies that are part of the Annecy 2024 line-up, whether they are produced by a renowned director or studio or has a very interesting concept that is hard to ignore.
So, let’s get to my top 5 most anticipated animated movies coming out of this legendary festival!
Honourable Mentions
Before we get to my 5 most anticipated Annecy Festival animated movies though, I would like to give some honourable mentions to a few animated movies that deserved a shout-out regardless:
- Memoir of a Snail (Competition): This Australian animated movie (from the same studio behind Mary and Max) got me in for both its mature concept and its claymation animation style, carrying on the torch of exciting Australian animation from last year’s Scarygirl.
- Sauvages (Competition): By the same team behind the Oscar-nominated My Life As a Zucchini, Sauvages could be another hit from that Switzerland-based team.
- Sultana’s Dream (Contrechamp): I am extremely interested in this movie mostly thanks to its animation style, with certain sequences being drawn on paper. This being in a wide variety of languages, Sultana’s Dreams could be a surprise.
- Fox and Hare Save the Forest (Annecy Presents): Having seen its Cartoon Movie preview last year, I am interested to see how this movie takes its environmental messaging to new heights.
- The Worlds Divide (Annecy Presents): The concept alone already sold me, and it is quite rare to see such a more mature feeling animated movie from Canada, even knowing how big Canada’s animation industry is.
- Extinction (Malaysia) and Out of the Nest (Thailand) (Both Annecy Presents): I am giving these two animated movies a honourable mention only because they are from Southeast Asia, and given I’m from Singapore, I need to support my Malaysian and Thai animators loudly and proudly.
5. The Most Precious of Cargoes (Competition)
- Director: Michel Hazanavicious
- Animation Studio: Ex Nihilo
- Country of Origin: France, Belgium
- Expected Release Date: 20 November 2024 (in France)
Based on the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg, a couple in Poland discovered and took care of a Jewish child, who was thrown off a train carrying Jews to the death camp of Auschwitz by his family.
If you find Michel Hazanavicious a familiar name before, this is because he is a household writer of various French shows and movies, one of which turned out to be the Oscar Best Picture winner, The Artist. While he also has directing experience, this is the first time he is directing an animated movie, which is already interesting enough.
Even further, The Most Precious of Cargoes will be the opening film of the festival, which has already piqued the interest of the French film industry and the animation industry, myself included. Whether or not this will ruffle the feathers remains to be seen, but knowing Hazanavicious’s writing credentials, you can be certain that he will cook up a storm with this novel adaptation!
4. Into the Wonderwoods (Competition)
- Directors: Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord
- Animation Studios: Gao Shan Pictures, Je Suis Bien Content
- Country of Origin: France, Luxembourg
- Expected Release Date: 23 October 2024 (in France)
The only fully CG animated movie on this list, Into the Wonderwoods features a 10-year-old, who dreams of becoming an adventurer, venturing into a mysterious forest after being left behind by his family at a freeway gas station by mistake to find his family only to find a mysterious world less discovered.
Vincent Paronnaud is already well known in the French animation industry prior to this movie, most of which is thanks to his Oscar nominated film Persepolis, as well as various animated shorts he produced. This time, he is joined by Alex Ducord, who has directed 2017’s Zombillenium and was the storyboard artist of 2020’s Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, two recognisable animated movies in the French and French-speaking animation industry.
In addition to having two all-star directors in charge, Wonderwoods is produced by Gao Shan Pictures, which is becoming a dark horse of the French animation industry, being the animation studio behind so many iconic and well-loved animated movies such as Funan, I Lost My Body and Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be. For sure, Gao Shan’s latest animated movie, They Shot the Piano Player, was a massive disappointment, but I am certain this is just a blip in their otherwise stellar track record.
From its Cartoon Movie preview this year, I am already intrigued by the mysterious aspect of this movie as well as lessons of a beginner’s mind, so I am expecting great things from Wonderwoods with its concept.
3. The Glassworker (Contrechamp)
- Director: Usman Riaz
- Animation studio: Mano Animation Studios
- Country of Origin: Pakistan
- Expected Release Date: 26 July 2024 (in Pakistan)
The Glassworker is the first 2D hand-drawn animated movie from Pakistan, focusing on the life of a young glassblower as he learns the trade of becoming a master glassblower while enduring through a civil war in his land.
Sometimes, it is very interesting to see through animated movies from all across the world, especially if they do not have a sizable animation industry or one that has an infamously bad track record. Last year, I got to explore Cricket and Antoinette from Croatia and Mavka: The Forest Song from Ukraine, who both do not have a sizable animation industry. This year, I had already witnessed a phenomenal animated movie from The Philippines with The Missing, as well as Aurora’s Sunrise from Armenia. This year, it is Pakistan’s turn (even though yes, The Donkey King was also from Pakistan).
I absolutely adore the animation and the writing based on what I saw in its trailer, and I really cannot wait to see how this will turn at Annecy!
2. Ghost Cat Anzu (Competition)
- Directors: Yoko Kuni and Nobuhiro Yamashita
- Animation Studios: Shin-Ei Animation Co., Ltd and Miyu Productions
- Country of Origin: Japan and France
- Expected Release Date: 19 July 2024 (in Japan)
Ghost Cat Anzu stars a girl who was sent to a temple in a countryside to be with her monk granddad, where she became friends with Anzu, a ghost cat who becomes her guardian during her time in the temple.
If you are a fan of the Crayon Shin-chan series, you might be familiar with Yoko Kuno, who is one of the most passionate animators from Japan who contributed to the legendary Shin-chan series. This will be Yoko’s first time directing a movie and already, it is getting a spot at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this year. It also helped that Miyu Productions, who was involved in Chicken for Linda, is co-producing this movie.
Plus, GKIDS, the North American distributor famous for being some of the most beloved non-mainstream animated movies to the United States, such as the Oscar-winning film The Boy and the Heron last year, has picked up this movie even before its Cannes and Annecy debut, so already, this is a great sign. Given the amount of hype it is already getting, this could be the anime movie of 2024, even considering that the Competition line-up has a lot of Japanese animated movies.
1. Flow (Competition)
- Director: Glints Zibalodis
- Animation Studios: Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions
- Country of Origin: Latvia, Belgium and France
- Expected Release Date: 2024 (Date to be finalised)
The second animated movie from Latvian animation auteur, Glints Zibalodis, Flow is once again a silent animated movie featuring a cat stranded on a boat in a post-apocalyptic flooded world.
Zibalodis already made a splash (pun intended) back in 2020 when I covered his 2019 film Away, which won the Annecy Contrechamp competition in 2019, and for good reason. Despite the slightly flawed pacing of this movie as well as a couple of confusing elements, Away already impressed me thanks to how much he showcased his vision with simplicity and minimalism, elements you do not often see in most animated movies these days, even the non-mainstream ones. Oh, and did you know that he produced and animated Away all by himself?
This time, he will not be alone as Matiss Kaza will co-write the screenplay (or lack thereof because there is no dialogue at all just like with Away), who has already produced a lot of shorts and movies for Latvia himself. Knowing how much Away is a fantastic first impression, Flow is already on my watchlist as perhaps one of the most exciting animated movies for the rest of 2024, and with a (slightly) larger crew this time around.
If Flow turned out to be another Robot Dreams, which like Flow is a mostly silent animated movie that turned heads last year with its Contrechamp win, it will show that there is no one right way to produce top-quality animated movies. Hence, this is why Flow is my most anticipated animated movie from the Annecy International Film Festival 2024.
Conclusion
These are only a sample of the animated movies you will get to see at Annecy this year, and even though I will not be able to attend this event because it is in France and I will be at work, I am so excited to see how this event will unfold! It goes to show that you can still find some exciting animated movies out there, no matter how much the animation community is trying to ignore because they are focused on hate watching certain animated shows and movies, even with some fantastic animated shows and movies worth exploring.
Thank you so much for this quick list of what I am looking for in the animated movies showcasing at Annecy. When I come back after a short break, we will cover more animated movies from all across the world again. Until next time, see you on the next adventure!
