The Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Why it Rocks!

For many film fans, the premier festival that begins their year is the Cannes Film Festival. It’s where many of the year’s biggest films are on their journey to award season greatness or infamy. While I look forward to seeing what films critics and fans of the festival hype up this year, it’s not my favorite festival. Outside of the nose-in-the-air vibes I get from the festival founders and goers themselves, like most festival screenings, you need to take the hype from films playing there with a grain of salt. Still, it’s always good to keep up with what gets made and to see what the entire world is crafting with the power of cinema. However, the festival I look forward to the most, outside of Animation is Film, is the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. 

While I assume most film fans are more aware of Sundance, Telluride, TIFF, Venice, and more live-action genre-based festivals like Fantasia and the similarly named Fantastic Fest, you might not be familiar with Annecy. Consider it the Cinemacon/Cannes of animation. Animation studios, individuals, and teams from all around the world come to show off their films in many of the same competition categories that go on in other film festival circuits. You even get to see some previews, pitches, midnight screenings, work-in-progress screenings, and premieres of major theatrical releases from the stateside releases.

If you are an animation fan, it’s the premier festival to look forward to. Whatever gets positive buzz here tends to be what gets into Animation is Film, which then results in Best Animated Feature Nominees. It’s a festival to check out, because for the longest time, I have seen people show disinterest in what’s getting made in animation, but don’t seem interested in broadening their tastes and horizons of what animation can be from around the world. They either choose to be ignorant or overlook what is going on with the rest of the world with this medium of storytelling. It’s a gateway to the world of animation and what’s coming out globally. It’s cool to see people and teams from different continents not be held down by the limitations of creativity that stagnate US-made theatrical features, yet a lot of what gets shown here takes forever to come out, due to the long production periods with 2D and stylized CGI animation. Not all animation works the same way around the world as it does here in the United States. Now then, the areas of interest you should look for at Annecy are as follows. 

Main Competition

Let’s start with the main films that compete. There are usually about 10 or so films in this category, where a majority of the more acclaimed films start their journey to get to Animation is Film. For example, the big victors from this category in 2024 were Flow, Memoir of a Snail, and The Colors Within. Not that every major player comes from this one category or becomes an Oscar nominee in the future. For instance, in 2018, the big Annecy winner was Funan, and it was the big winner at Animation is Film, but the Oscar nominee from the Annecy lineup was Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai. It’s the first step of seeing what the world of animation has to offer, and it’s usually very bountiful. If I had to pick what would be the frontrunner of potential future awards, it would have to be the newest film by Sylvian Chomet, A Magnificent Life, due to most folks adoring his films since the Oscar nominations for his 2003 The Triplets of Belleville and 2010 The Illusionist. This year’s lineup and category are always strong, so I’ll write a different editorial listing some of the films to look out for at Annecy in June. Stay tuned.. 

Contrechamp

Originally, there was an out-of-competition section, but it was switched to a new section called Contrechamp. While a lot of the big award winners or more audience-friendly stuff are shown here, like 2023’s Robot Dreams, that’s not the goal. It’s a category that shows the more experimental and ambitious side of animation that may be more limited in its broad appeal. That doesn’t make them lesser films, because these artists and their teams are pushing the boundaries, which is always a welcome change of pace, and, whether you like it or not,  doesn’t matter in the long run. It’s sadly the reason why most films from this category don’t tend to find distribution as easily as the main competition, since being less accessible to audience-goers means it becomes a riskier endeavor. Still, these films are trying out new visual wonders with familiar styles of animation. It’s a category that shows that animation is nowhere near finished developing and doing something new that doesn’t need the trashy addition of generative AI. 

Out of Competition: Screening Events, Annecy Presents, and Midnight Screenings 

I’m going to combine these three because they are all sort of the same thing, but have a few minor differences. These films aren’t in competition, but you will be able to see a bunch of new films, previews of upcoming events, and experiences. Netflix will have a slate of new offerings that will be added to its service. The long-awaited 2D feature from Genndy Tartakovsky, Fixed, will finally arrive on Netflix later this year, but will get a screening at the festival. Disney will screen Elio and a first look at Zootopia 2. Sony will show a preview of their 2026 basketball feature Goat. DreamWorks will screen/preview The Bad Guys 2. Andy Serkis will be showing off his animated adaptation of the famous Animal Farm. Kenji Iwaisawa returns to Annecy with a screening of the visually stunning and exciting sports film 100 Meters. The Midnight Screenings are usually the films that have more of an adult feel to them, but that doesn’t mean it’s all comedies and ultraviolence. Studio 4C has two films at Annecy this year, with the romantic comedy ChaO in the main competition section, but for the Midnight Screening section, we have their action-packed All You Need is Kill, an adaptation of the manga that inspired Edge of Tomorrow. 

Work in Progress

This category is rather self-explanatory. Filmmakers and their teams come here to talk about their films that are currently being made. Sometimes, they are close to completion and will get released later that year, like Makoto Shinkai’s 2019 Weathering With You. Sometimes they come out or compete in the festival the next year, like Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be, Unicorn Wars, and Bunuel and the Labyrinth of the Turtles. Some even show up to pitch what they are making and are looking for funding. It results in some showings having very little that meet the eye, so first impressions have to be important. Still, to get a sneak peek of what’s to come or what’s getting made and looking for support is always cool to see, since some very creative films come out of this category for future festival experiences. 

As for how to close this selective guide, always be aware that you should take festival reactions with a grain of salt, since being at a festival and then at the theatrical release of said films can be entirely different due to their respective audiences. Also, while the organizers will slowly start to possibly update the festival, we can hope that they learned their lesson and not allow any genAI into their rankings. The response that they got last year was swift and harsh. Unlike some film festivals that are allowing slop into their rankings, Annecy and Animation Is Film are no homes for hacks and mediocre filmmakers who think using genAI is art. It’s why I love these two festivals, because they aren’t here for the fame and glamour. Instead, they celebrate the world of animation and art. It’s what every festival should be about. Sure, they care about having big names and their names in the news, but you go to Annecy, Animation Is Film, and, supposedly, Cannes to see the world of creativity and storytelling.