11/06/2007

The 31st Annecy Animated Film Festival opens its doors today. The festival is the most important competitive event in Europe for animated film, a genre that was recently awarded at Cannes with Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Jury Prize winner Persepolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marc-Antoine Robert
interview: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Pa…
film profile].

This year the Savoie event will be presenting a packed programme of 233 films from 35 countries until June 16, as well as the three-day International Market for Animated Film (MIFA), where 300 exhibitors and television, cinema and video animation programme professionals will meet from June 13-15.

The nine features in competition include three European co-productions: Michel Ocelot’s 2006 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry Azur & Asmar [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (France/Italy/Belgium/Spain, see article); the 2006 Cannes Critics’ Week closing film, (see news) UK/Norwegian title Free Jimmy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Christopher Nielsen; and Samuel and Frédéric Guillaume’s Max & Co [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Switzerland/Belgium/UK/France, see article).

Out of competition preview screenings include directing duo Janno Põldma and Heiki Ernits’s Lotte from Gadgetville (an Estonian/Latvian co-production, see article), French film Le Tueur de Montmartre, directed by Yugoslavian cartoonist Borislav Sajtinac, and Fly Me to the Moon by Belgium’s Ben Stassen (see news).

Two Scandinavian features will be on show: Elias and the Royal Yacht by Norwegian directors Espen Fyksen and Lise Osvoll and The Ugly Duckling and Me! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Denmark’s Michael Hegner and Karsten Kiilerich (see article).

Other European productions include One Night in One City by Czech helmer Jan Balej, Gisaku by Spain’s Baltasar Pedrosa, Juan Pablo Buscarini’s Argentinean/Italian co-production El arca and French helmer Philippe Leclerc’s Princess of the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Léon Zuratas
interview: Philippe Leclerc
film profile] (see Focus).

On Thursday, the MIFA will invite industry professionals to a Benelux Day, held in partnership with Wallonie-Bruxelles Images (WBI), Film Fund Luxembourg, Holland Film (Nederland Instituut voor Animatiefilms – NIAF) and Flanders Image. The day will feature a co-production meeting and a presentation of Benelux-produced animated films, as well as an overview of the EU funding mechanisms.

The festival will also host a number of conferences on the productivity of studios, visual effects and the future of animated features, with participation from producers Christophe Rossignon and Didier Brunner.

A rich and varied programme is lined up for a sector that while booming in Europe lacks sufficient financial resources.

(Translated from French)