Switzerland in the Spotlight

Annecy Honours Swiss Animation

To celebrate Swiss animation’s 100-year anniversary in 2021, our Swiss friends are centre stage for the Annecy Festival’s 46^th edition!

This year, the festivalgoers will have the chance to discover an animation production in full boom and its impressive cinematic history. Swiss film has numerous pioneers and illustrious names such as Gisèle and Ernest "Nag" Ansorge, Julius Pinschewer and Georges Schwizgebel.

Swiss animation will grace the theatre screens throughout the Festival showing restorations from the Swiss Film Archives, retrospectives on major directors, but also through a programming from the Fantoche and Animatou festivals who, for this special occasion, have carte blanche!

Friends of Switzerland, don’t miss the highlights that will make their mark on the Festival’s history. Attend the illustrious Georges Schwizgebel’s film concert joined by his son and discover Charlotte Desigaud’s photographic exhibition dedicated to My Life As a Zucchini (Cristal for a Feature Film 2016)!

"This tribute was envisioned and planned before the pandemic hit, and so it is with huge satisfaction to be able to celebrate films, artists and companies from a country that has a past, present, and future in animation film."
Mickaël Marin, CEO, CITIA

Swiss animation through Marcel Jean’s eyes

"Swiss animation and Annecy go back a long way. It’s a story about proximity, being neighbours, and about prizes too.

Annecy pays tribute to Swiss animation film, a cinematography that is deeply rooted in their cultural history, while the father of print literature – or, if you prefer, the father of comic books – Rodolphe Töpffer, author of The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck in 1827, and who almost a century later – in 1921 – Lortac and Cavé make an animated adaptation called L’Histoire de monsieur Vieux-Bois.

It’s the starting point of a cinematography that includes esteemed authors – Gisèle and Nag Ansorge, Julius Pinschewer, Georges Schwizgebel – and has since extended into all genres and styles. The brothers, Sam and Fred Guillaume (Max & Co) to Claude Barras (My Life As a Zucchini), from Isabelle Favez (Tarte aux pommes) to Marina Rosset (The Bear’s Hand), from Michaela Müller (Miramare) to Michael Frei (Plug & Play), as well as Claude Luyet, Marcel Barelli, Claudius Gentinetta, Anja Kofmel, Zoltán Horváth and Maja Gehrig, Swiss animation is more lively and diverse than ever.

The Cristal for a Short Film awarded in 2021 to Peel by Samuel Patthey and Silvain Monney is a perfect example of an exuberance that we would like to pay tribute to.

As well as an historical overview of the production, the tribute to Swiss animation will also feature retrospective screenings dedicated to Claude Barras, Marcel Barelli, and Isabelle Favez.

The Annecy Festival would like to extend its warmest thanks to the numerous Swiss institutions that collaborated on this tribute: Swiss Films, the Swiss Film Archive, Animatou, Fantoche, the Swiss Animation Film Group (GSFA), and the Haute École de Lucerne (HSLU).”

Marcel Jean, Artistic Director

Festival

The Annecy 2022 Trailer Created by the studio NADASDY FILM
This year’s Festival’s must-see trailer was created by Marjolaine Perreten from Nadasdy Film, in collaboration with Frederic Siegel from Team Tumult. Swiss animation will therefore be lighting up the screens in every film theatre dedicated to the Festival!
Discover the teaser to the trailer now, and see you on 13^th June to discover the full trailer!

Synopsis: On a snow-capped Swiss mountain, a bubble suddenly appears, disturbing a little insect that was hibernating. The sound it makes when it pops intrigues it even more! When a new bubble appears, it doesn’t think twice, it starts following it as it moves away.

Official Selection
In the Festival’s Official Selection, Switzerland is represented through 13 films spread across the following categories:

• Official Short Films (4 films)
• Off-Limits Short Films (2 films)
• Perspectives Short Films (1 film)
• Young Audience Short Films (2 films)
• Graduation Films (3 films)
• TV Films (1 film)

Discover the Official Selection

Georges Schwizgebel’s concert film and My Life As a Zucchini exhibition

Georges Schwizgebel and his son’s concert film:
The iconic Swiss Director Georges Schwizgebel, recipient of the Honorary Cristal in 2017, will give a concert film with his son, Louis Schwizgebel-Wang, at the Musée-Château d’Annecy on Friday 17^th June.

My Life As a Zucchini exhibition:
Charlotte Desigaud’s photographic exhibition is dedicated to the animation film shooting of My Life As a Zucchini directed by Claude Barras, who received the Cristal for a Feature Film in 2016. The exhibition will be held at the Médiathèque Bonlieu from 16^th June. More info
In the context of the exhibition, the Festival will also have the pleasure in welcoming Gilles Paris about his book "Autobiographie d’une courgette" from which the film was adapted.

Direction Switzerland with 14 Special Programmes

There are a number of Special Programmes for festivalgoers thanks to the collaboration with Swiss institutions.

Screenings to check out:

GSFA
For Swiss animation’s 100-year anniversary 41 films were edited by the Swiss Animation Film Group (GSFA) and divided into 4 retrospective and themed programmes one of which is for children: Escapades, Crossings, Trips, Transitions. Accessible to a very wide audience, these films are jewels of animation and a delight for young and old.

Claude Barras, Isabelle Favez and Marcel Barelli have Carte blanche!
In these various Carte blanche programmes, we head off to encounter the filmography of three Swiss animation film greats. Opportunities for discussions will be organized between the directors and the public so the inquisitive can ask questions and satisfy their artistic curiosity! Claude Barras, Isabelle Favez and Marcel Barelli will take this opportunity to present their latest creations.

Animatou Carte blanche, "Carré blanc" programme and Fantoche
It didn’t take much for the Annecy Festival to hook up with two well-known Swiss festivals, Animatou and Fantoche.
Animatou and Fantoche will offer mature programmes with Fantoche showcasing experimental film, which is top-class quality and very dear to our Swiss friends. Animatou will quench our thirst for enlightened film with genuine animated social criticism.
Animatou will also offer the "Carré blanc" programme in tribute of the great Bruno Edera, the GSFA’s co-founder and programme producer at the RTSR, who notably produced a number of programmes on the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The tribute will take into account his passion for erotic animation film.

Swiss Film Archives restorations
The Festival then focused on Swiss heritage through a collaboration with the Swiss Film Archive who carried out the most incredible restoration work.
The public will be able to discover two avant-garde programmes. One is dedicated to Julius Pinschsewer – a Swiss animation pioneer – and focuses on his films between 1930 and 1950. The other is dedicated to the couple Gisèle and Ernest "Nag" Ansorge, pioneers and masters of sand animation, very well-known at the Annecy Festival!

Premiere screenings
Swiss animation’s indispensable brothers, Samuel and Frédéric Guillaume conquered the international scene with Max & Co in 2007.
The Festival will present their latest short film Sur le pont, which borders between documentary and fiction, animation and live-action shots, life and death.
Lastly, the public will be able to discover the French premiere of Red Jungle, the feature film by Zoltán Horváth and Juan José Lozano.

Personalities present and Swiss jury members

As part of the Swiss tribute, the Annecy Festival will host numerous Swiss personalities!

• Marcel Barelli, Director
• Georges Schwizgebel, Director
• Isabelle Favez, Director
• Claude Luyet, Director
• Samuel Patthey, Director
• Zoltán Horváth, Director
• Matilda Tavelli, Artistic Director
• Claude Barras, Director
• Korlei Rochat, Producer, Director
• Frédéric Guillaume, Director
• Samuel Guillaume, Director
• Mariama Balde, Producer, Director
• Raphaëlle Stolz, Director
• Saskia Von Virág, Director and jury member
• Michael Frei, Director and jury member
• Frédéric Maire, Director of the Swiss Film Archive and jury member

This year the jury for the Perspectives category will be composed of three young professionals, graduates from the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (ECAL): Mariama Balde, Gabriel Colban and Korlei Rochat.

Mifa

Every year a Swiss umbrella is present inside the Market. As part of the tribute it will be increased in size as an exterior terrace in the Impérial Palace park grounds to greet all the Swiss professionals and talents in the best conditions possible.

A glimpse of the programme:

• A 18m² stand for the Swiss delegation, with notably Belgium, Luxembourg, Quebec

• Co-production meetings on the SWISS FILMS stand

• A Mifa opening party in Swiss colours, in partnership with the HSLU (Haute école de Lucerne), the Swiss Embassy, SWISS FILMS and Presence Switzerland

• Two selected Swiss projects pitched in the Mifa’s XR Area:
  - Sunset Motel, Digital Experiences category, directed by Gilles Jobin, based on the graphic novel by Thomas Ott
  - Amazing Monster!, Digital Experiences category, written by Raphael Penasa and Allison Crank, based on an original idea by Jonathan Droz

• As part of the Mifa Campus, Samuel Patthey, Co-Director of Peel, Cristal for a Short Film in 2021, will talk about his experience on the film’s production

• An XR Pitch in partnership with the Geneva International Film Festival in the Mifa’s XR Area

The Annecy Festival would like to warmly thank all the Swiss entities who are making this tribute possible!

• SWISS FILMS
• Présence Suisse
• GIFF (Geneva)
• Fantoche (Baden)
• Animatou (Geneva)
• Cinémathèque suisse (Penthaz)
• HSLU (Lucerne)
• GSFA (Zürich)
• Ville de Genève
• Swiss Consulate in Lyon
• Cinéforom – La Fondation Romande pour le cinéma (Geneva)

See you on 13^th June in Annecy for the best animation from around the world and the best Swiss animation.