Editorials
Annecy 2022
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DOMINIQUE PUTHOD
MICKAËL MARIN
After three long years, we are thrilled to once again reunite the great animation film family. This art where everything is possible and which undoubtedly offers the most exciting cinematic proposition of our generation. The competition’s excellence, the buzz of the premieres, the Mifa’s dynamism, and the abundant Meetings programme. For this 2022 edition, along with our team, we wanted to prepare a dazzling display of creativity, diversity, and exchanges. What galvanises a festival and gives it its unique soul, is its local roots and close relationship with the general public. The open-air screenings are back again, especially on Le Pâquier. We return to a town that has been buzzing to the rhythm of the Festival since 1960, which every year welcomes thousands of professionals and students from around the world, and has established itself as the world capital of animation film. Switzerland, whose animation is a hundred years old, is in the limelight at Annecy 2022. This is an opportunity for us to warmly welcome its delegation and all those who have contributed to this tribute. We would also like to express our full support to the Ukrainian animation film community, as well as the Ukrainian people. This edition is dedicated to them.
We wish you a wonderful Festival and Mifa.
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Festival
CITIA
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MARCEL JEAN
The 2022 edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival is showing all the signs of a grand comeback. Its programming is richer than ever, you are once again able to travel, and we are thrilled about the idea of welcoming great numbers of you here. The months passed choosing the films which you will view this year, the months spent organizing the meetings and selecting the projects, these months of intense work have allowed us to testify to the dynamics of an industry which is as resilient as it is creative. Therefore, this is a full menu we have prepared for you, crammed with surprises and discoveries. A varied menu, too, offering independent experimental productions, feature films from major studios, as well as the latest works from the teeming field of animated documentaries. We wish to dedicate this year’s festival to Giannalberto Bendazzi, this great historian of animated cinema, this generous fellow traveler of Annecy who passed away a few months ago, but who left in legacy to us such rich and seminal work. And so, dear Giannalberto, here for you is this most "beautiful of all festi-fulls"!
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Minister of Culture
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RIMA ABDUL-MALAK
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, bringing together the vast world of animation, is a seminal event eagerly awaited by both the industry’s experts and the public at large. Annecy will once again be the perfect showcase for the excellence of creative French animation, widely acknowledged internationally. Our country, a seedbed of animation talents, is endowed with a network of top-quality schools plus a flourishing ecosystem of world-famed studios. For over sixty years the public powers have ceaselessly cultivated this tremendous French artistic and industrial success. At the Annecy Festival each and every attendee can appreciate the extensive technical and artistic know-how of these outstanding professionals. As this year’s beautiful poster bids us to do, let’s set sail on the winds of creativity, the only limit being that of the imaginations of the competing talents and filmmakers. To all, here’s wishing you a very joyful Annecy Festival and excellent professional encounters!
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CNC
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DOMINIQUE BOUTONNAT
We are so very pleased, after a 2021 hybrid vintage, to be back at a fully resplendent Annecy Festival. Given its competitions and its Market, Annecy is a must-attend event for the world animation film industry. In 2022, after two pandemic-wrought years, professionals from the world over will once again be able to meet in person, structuring partnerships and further exploring the sector’s diverse writing and technical avenues. In France we have succeeded in building an outstanding ecosystem fostering animation with: exceptional schools and training programs – five of the world’s top fifteen –, artistic and technical excellence and public support for innovation, of absolute strategic importance to this field. These are the key assets which will allow us to maintain our head start in an era of booming demand for programs and works, under the double impact of the growth of the audiovisual market in the broad sense and of our own regulatory and financial support initiatives. On the eve of this new Festival, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mickaël Marin, its director, Marcel Jean, its artistic director, as well as to the entire team working to make this event stand out as an uncontested benchmark, both for the Festival and the Market. Have a great time exploring the world of imagination!
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France Télévisions
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DELPHINE ERNOTTE-CUNCI
As a leading backer of French animation, France Télévisions is proud to be the official partner of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Again this year, this not-to-be-missed event offers an opportunity to celebrate the exceptional vitality of one of our most dynamic and daring creative industries which magnifies France’s radiant global influence. Throughout the year France Télévisions places animation in the limelight on all its channels, especially Okoo. Our children’s programming blends strong linear exposure with extensive digital distribution which is becoming increasingly popular even among the youngest viewers. A mainstay of our bond to young viewerships, animation is an essential genre on our public service slate. Since animated works are so vibrantly diverse, they spark the imagination, enhance sensitivity and enrich the worldview of their audiences. It is for this very reason that we have committed to the creatives who breathe life into these works. Via its partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France Télévisions reaffirms its ambition to back the French festivals showcasing the best of worldwide creativity. So to each and every one of you, a very good festival!
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Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region
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LAURENT WAUQUIEZ
It was here in 19th century Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that the Lumière brothers invented cinema. Since that founding time, our region has never stopped nourishing this legacy, allowing it to grow, unfurling the history of the Seventh Art. Today we are the grand region of cinema. We are so fortunate to be able to count on a dynamic industry in this field with numerous movie houses throughout our départements, renowned and often prizewinning studios, plus major events dedicated to the art of cinema. Indeed every year we host international festivals exemplifying our territory’s excellence. Among them the Annecy Festival has grown over the years to become the world’s foremost animated film rendezvous. After a few problematic years due to the health context, we are very pleased to be back on the scene for this event which once again is brimming with promise. For 62 years, the Annecy Festival has shone its spotlight on the animation industry, illuminating an ever-increasingly rich and demanding top-quality selection. It also gives pride of place to our regional studios which have shown themselves to be incredibly talented in this sector. Thus the future of cinema is being scripted in Annecy. Our congratulations to the organizers and volunteers without whom such events could never take place. We are proud to be on hand, just as we are for the nearly 500 other cultural events we back every year.
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Haute-Savoie Department
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MARTIAL SADDIER
MYRIAM LHUILLIER
For more than sixty years, the Annecy Festival has been drawing professionals, enthusiasts, students and the curious to toast the creativity and diversity of animated movies. After two years impacted by the health crisis, the Haute-Savoie Department, a loyal partner of the Festival, is pleased to assist this new edition, to be held June 13 to 18 in Annecy, the sanctum of animation cinema. Film Market, exclusive presentations of the latest animated masterpieces, gatherings with directors… Over the course of a week Annecy will set the world vibrating to the beat of animation, unveiling to festival-goers our area’s exceptional natural and cultural treasures. More broadly, all Haute-Savoie locals will be able to enjoy this unique experience, through the Pass grand public, the traditional Open-air Screenings on the Pâquier every weeknight, a special program for school children, as well as a department-wide tour June 13-30 through the region’s participating art house theaters. We heartily congratulate the CITIA team, the volunteers and all those who play a role in this event, reputed worldwide for its great quality. We wish you beautiful moments of sharing, lovely discoveries and poetic escape as the screenings roll on!
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Grand Annecy
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FRÉDÉRIQUE LARDET
Grand Annecy is proud to support the International Animation Film Festival, which has been one with our territory for over 60 years. Convening enthusiasts, professionals and amateurs in the heart of our cityscape, the Festival shines Grand Annecy’s light abroad and reconfirms our role as a creative space, at the crossroads of culture and engineering. We are so pleased to be coming back to a full-fledged festival for this edition, after the 2021 hybrid version. This year the roster of more than 3 000 animated films sourced from 83 countries participating in this festival highlights the importance of this event in the field of animation. The program abounds with: a special tribute to the animation of our Swiss neighbors, exceptional movie previews, 200 competing films… this edition promises to be outstanding! Our ties to the animation sector date far back. Indeed, as a founding member of the CITIA public cultural cooperation entity, we support this essential player of Annecy animation and linchpin of this festival, as well as supporting training courses and companies in the image and creative industries sphere located in our area. I’d like to take this opportunity here to thank them for their commitment and their loyalty to our region. I wish you all a very good festival.
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Annecy Town Hall
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FRANÇOIS ASTORG
What a joy for Annecy to be back again with its "own" Festival, in the flesh and in images, for a 2022 edition which is bound to be grandiose since it’s ringing in a moment of reunion, rematch and renaissance! After the entirely digital 2020 vintage, then a 2021 hybrid version – both of which managed, in spite of difficulties and drawbacks, to win the hearts of viewers and celebrate the profession as it should – the time has come for the International Animation Film Festival and its Market to recapture their rightful space in Annecy, the Cité du cinéma d'animation, where the image and creative industries sector has never been so booming! This year, ultra-inventive Swiss animation and its pool of talents, authors and artists with multi-faceted worlds will transport us into their labyrinthian imaginations, from screenings of their latest productions to retrospectives dedicated to the great Helvetian directors. And because this impatiently-awaited edition can be nothing if not collective, this year more than ever, animation will rock the days and nights of the festival-goers, of professionals from around the world, and of Annecy residents and visitors. Since Annecy loves its Festival, it will be all over the city, and cinema will be everywhere right at home, in Annecy!
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Mifa
CITIA
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VÉRONIQUE ENCRENAZ
Three years have passed since the last in-person Mifa meet-up. Three years that, in many ways, might have felt like a long intermission, something in slow motion. Even so, since the 2019 Mifa, over the course of our editions – 100% on-line in 2020 and hybrid in 2021 – and in spite of constrained distancing, we have seen continents veer closer and changes speed up:
All of these are signs of the sector’s great vitality, backed by national and European policies like the CNC’s France 2030 or else the new 2021-2027 Creative Europe MEDIA Program. They will be on hand, thrusting the industry’s global transformation whose premises and initial outcomes are just now emerging, and will serve as the source of unprecedented opportunities.
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CNC
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DOMINIQUE BOUTONNAT
We are so very pleased, after a 2021 hybrid vintage, to be back at a fully resplendent Annecy Festival. Given its competitions and its Market, Annecy is a must-attend event for the world animation film industry. In 2022, after two pandemic-wrought years, professionals from the world over will once again be able to meet in person, structuring partnerships and further exploring the sector’s diverse writing and technical avenues. In France we have succeeded in building an outstanding ecosystem fostering animation with: exceptional schools and training programs – five of the world’s top fifteen –, artistic and technical excellence and public support for innovation, of absolute strategic importance to this field. These are the key assets which will allow us to maintain our head start in an era of booming demand for programs and works, under the double impact of the growth of the audiovisual market in the broad sense and of our own regulatory and financial support initiatives. On the eve of this new Festival, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mickaël Marin, its director, Marcel Jean, its artistic director, as well as to the entire team working to make this event stand out as an uncontested benchmark, both for the Festival and the Market. Have a great time exploring the world of imagination!
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European Commission
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LUCÍA RECALDE
The audiovisual sector has been slowly recovering from the Covid-19 crisis. As we are half-way through 2022, it is still difficult to predict the future audiovisual trends in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Still some things remain unchanged, such as the rapid technological developments accompanying new ways of creating and of working and the capacity of the animation sector to embrace innovation. As animated stories are growing, we expect to see more animated content both on the big screen and in streaming platforms. While emerging technologies allow production of works in more innovative ways, storytelling is effortlessly bringing together animation alongside different genres, such as documentary. Through Creative Europe MEDIA and the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan, we aim at supporting the industry’s efforts and boosting the opportunities of each European player, to strengthen the sector as a whole. Animation will benefit from MEDIA actions related to co-development, and from a more flexible TV programming scheme, as well as training programs for those looking to keep pace with the digital and green transformations. As every year, we will be following the discussions in the Annecy Festival and Mifa to explore the latest technological developments, latest trends in storytelling and to best accompany this sector.
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France Télévisions
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PIERRE SIRACUSA
First and foremost, what a pleasure to have renewed our partnership for the next 3 years with the world’s most beautiful festival. A hotbed of animated creation since its origin, Annecy is the principal gauge of animation’s current successes and effervescence.
Actually, the field is in rather good shape right now, both in terms of creative realm and industry. And future perspectives look equally encouraging (new audiences, new uses, new players, new tools, and more).
In the realm of diversity of representational models and talents, there is female representation. Project after project, we target gender equality for our animated characters (Brazen, Anna & Froga, Akissi, Jade Armor, Ana Filoute, My Life in Versailles and others) but also for their creators: for nine seasons, En sortant de l’école has focused on making the work of over 100 young female directors more visible. France Télévisions is pursuing a new commitment with the LFA-Les Femmes S’Animent association and the "Parcours de Femmes" sponsorship, helping 6 French-speaking artists develop their short film projects, culminating at Annecy. In the audience realm, France Télévisions will strengthen its support for animation targeting older audiences via its francetvslash offer, designed for young adults. The fantastic vitality of contemporary animation cannot develop without this diversity of works and authors but, more notably, without purposeful durability in its investors’ strategy. France Télévisions is and shall remain the preferred partner of French-European animated creation. Moreover, the time is ripe for taking our eco-responsibility seriously. We are committed to working with all women and men in the sector to implement guidance tools by the end of this year.
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