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  2016 Archives

Affiche Annecy 2016
  1. Festival
  2. Mifa
  3. Meetings
  4. Press
  5. In pictures
  6. The Team

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Once again the Annecy Festival and Mifa have broken all records, passing the mark of 9,000 accredited festival-goers!

International Animation Film Festival (June 13 to 18, 2016)

This year’s 2016 edition again proved that the Annecy Festival is a must-go event for the animation world. Overall, 9,153 pass-holders from 85 countries came to attend the screening of approximately 500 films chosen from among 2,700 formally-submitted works.

Nine impatiently-awaited feature films were in the running for the crowning Cristal. And it’s a French-Swiss production which unanimously won the public prize as well as the Cristal for best feature film: Ma vie de Courgette (My Life as a Zucchini) by Claude Barras. In the short film category it was another co-production, French-Canadian this time, which earned its Cristal: Une tete disparait (The Head Vanishes) by Franck Dion.

For the very first time, French animation was the 2016 central theme. As a matter of fact, the Festival’s Cristal of Honor was bestowed on Didier Brunner, renowned French producer and driving force behind huge national animation success stories (Kirikou and the Sorceress; Ernest and Celestine).

The Festival also showcased 75 years of advertising animation, offering programs composed of works by the genre’s authors and by highly inventive production studios. Yet another top honor was the homage Annecy rendered to France-Korea year, with full Korean animation screenings organized for all.

As for special events, the Annecy Festival was on a roll, with Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle for the opening ceremony, the first pictures from Ice Age: Collision Course as well as Moana, and the first shots from DreamWorks’ Trolls and The Boss Baby. Meanwhile audiences thrilled to special previews of Finding Dory, Nerdland and Belladonna, including world premieres of both The Secret Life of Pets plus Louise en Hiver.

There was no shortage of VIPs this year, big names for big events: Guillermo del Toro, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Bruno Coulais, John Kricfalusi, Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Anthony Roux, Jean-François Laguionie, Dominique Frot, Élie Semoun, Michaël Dudok de Wit and others.

And for the immense pleasure of festival-goers, virtual reality was positioned at the heart of the entire event.

Feel like reliving this year’s experience on line?

Don’t forget to book next year’s Festival, June 12-17, 2017, when China will be the country of honor!

International Animation Film Market or Mifa (June 15 to 17, 2016)

After having celebrated its 30 years of existence last year, the Annecy International Animation Film Market continued on its unbroken 12-year growth curve. For 2016, this meant 2,800 pass-holders (or 4.5% above 2015) circulating through the 5,000 m² of Mifa exhibit space, 1,200 companies (up 4.7%) and 370 buyers, distributors and investors (a 1.5% increase). 69 countries were represented with participation – for the first time in history – by Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Turkey, New Zealand, plus a strong new contingent from Canada.

As for the Mifa Pitch sessions, it was also a surge year, with 400 projects originally submitted, up by 100 compared to 2015. Between the Mifa Pitches and the World Animation Pitches, now a fully-fledged category, 35 projects were selected overall, pursuing their search for future partners and backers (producers, distributors, etc.)

The hiring sessions, as well, toppled all records, with over 600 candidates from among 3,000 applicants attending 60 interview sessions. Illumination Mac Guff, Pixar, Ubisoft, Mikros Animation, Xilam… A score of studios, among the world’s greatest, were on hand to offer around 100 job openings.

Yet another important rendezvous concerned the Mifa & Variety’s Personality of the Year prize (first established in 2015) which was bestowed on Aardman Animations, the famous crazy-humor British studio, and its co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton.

Lastly, Mifa 2016 shone with certain milestone happenings, among them:

  • The visit by Mr. François Hollande, President of the French Republic, and Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Culture and Communications Minister. This visit denotes specific recognition for the animation domain of excellence.
  • The encouragements of Frédérique Bredin, CNC Chairwoman, who emphasized how French animation programs create opportunities abroad.
  • A CNC/CITIA round table debate, with star participation by Jack Lang, previous Culture and Communications Minister, who looked back in time to the 1980s policies which streamlined the emergence of the animation industry.
  • The involvement of such French broadcasters as France Télévisions, CANAL+, Lagardère Active and TF1, bolstering their support for French professionals by offering them projects to which they themselves are also committing.
  • A great many Focus Studio sessions served as stages for the animation industry’s “big guys” (DreamWorks, Cartoon Network, Google Spotlight Stories, Nickelodeon…) to show off their creative and technological processes.
  • The first European Animation Awards general meeting took place during the Mifa, chaired by Peter Lord and co-chaired by Didier Brunner.

These are just some of the very striking events showing that Mifa is a key rendezvous for all stakeholders of the animation industry.

Remember to note next year’s event in your agendas: June 14 to 16, 2017!

Meetings (June 13 to 17, 2016)

The new "Meetings" festival pass, initiated in 2015, was an amazing success again. For its holders, the pass is an open-sesame to no fewer than 10 conferences, 3 Keynotes, 3 Masterclasses, 2 Making Of, 8 Feature Works in Progress and – a first this year - 4 TV Works in Progress!

This provides vast possibilities for approaching animation from a different angle, accentuating exchanges and discussions centered on films and authors.

Among the many programs on offer, attendance was at a peak for the Leçons de Cinéma with: Guillermo del Toro discussing Trollhunters; Bruno Coulais, connecting music and animation; and finally John Kricfalusi, famed for revolutionizing animation styles and techniques.

The Works in Progress were at the top of attendance lists as well, with Trolls, the upcoming DreamWorks production; Samurai Jack, presented by Genndy Tartakovsky; Le Grand Méchant Renard et Autres Contes, introduced by Benjamin Renner, Didier Brunner and Damien Brunner; and Lastman, possibly last but certainly not least.

Given this phenomenal success, remember to schedule next year’s Rencontres: June 12 to 16, 2017!

Press

For the press as well, 2016 was a record-breaking year since nearly 330 journalists were welcomed in. This year media coverage of the Festival and Mifa was huge, both for local, national and international print press, and for topics and special reports on national TV stations, as well as articles on national and international web sites, and national radio programs, with 3 France Inter programs recorded directly on the Festival grounds.

The extent of this coverage can be understood by looking at the 2016 Press Review. Also, feel free to explore this year’s press service publications and the Festival’s photo library.

In  pictures

If you want to bask in the 2016 event, head for the Annecy Festival’s YouTube channel. There you’ll find recordings of the P’tits Dej du Court breakfast specials, the Rencontres’ three Keynote presentations, the daily introductory reels crafted by GOBELINS, l'école de l'image, the Partenaires teaser produced by Caribara, the INA playlists (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) highlighting French animation and – to crown this highly-animated week – the 2016 video overview!
Don’t miss, either, the Google Photo gallery with its posting of all the official pictures of this most recent edition.

The Team

Of course this year would never have been the success that it was without the hard work of the 37 permanent team members, along with the vital back-up provided by the 78 contract hires and 18 interns, not to mention the 349 volunteers plus 242 service-providers and temps who guarantee the seamless roll-out of such a wide-reaching event!

Check out the list of the permanent team members who helped concoct the Annecy 2016 success.