UPDATE (8 June): The Crossing [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (France/Germany/Czech Republic) by Florence Miailhe has joined the Official Competition.
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After last year’s "resilience edition" organised entirely online, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival will celebrate its 60-year anniversary from 14 to 19 June 2021 in “combat” mode, according to its director Mickaël Marin, who unveiled the programme of the event which is set unfold in hybrid form on this occasion. This biggest gathering for global animation will be the first international festival to be able to take place in person post-Covid (with 65% capacity for cinema auditoriums and a curfew of 11pm), whilst also offering online content and events.

Stealing focus on the menu, which has been concocted by artistic director Marcel Jean, are 20 titles screening across two feature film competitions (which won’t be viewable online). Among the ten candidates in the running for the 2021 Official Competition Crystal, four European productions shine bright: My Sunny Maad [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michaela Pavlátová
scheda film] by Czech filmmaker Michaela Pavlátová (read our article), the majority Austrian production Snotty Boy [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Marcus H. Rosenmüller e Sa…
scheda film] by Germany’s Marcus H Rosenmüller and Spain’s Santiago López Jover, The Ape Star [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Danish director Linda Hambäck, and Flee [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
scheda film] by her compatriot Jonas Poher Rasmussen (which scooped the Grand Prize within the Sundance Festival’s World Cinema Documentary section). They’ll be up against three Japanese feature films (including the festival’s opening film Josee, The Tiger and The Fish), one Chinese work, one Filipino title and a Canadian-American production.

As for the nine full-length films selected for the Contrechamp competition, two European features stand out among the line-up: Absolute Denial [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Brit Ryan Braund and the German-Chinese co-production Chicken of the Mound [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Chen Xi.

Works screening out of competition notably include Even Mice Belong in Heaven [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubenicek (uniting the production prowess of France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), the German-Belgian-Dutch production Coppelia by Jeff Tudor, Ben Tesseur and Steven De Beul, Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon by Richard Claus and Jose Zelada (steered by the Netherlands together with Peru) and the Oscar-nominated movie Wolfwalkers [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Ross Stewart and Tomm Moore, not to mention films coming courtesy of Pixar, DreamWorks Animation – Universal Pictures, and Sony Pictures Animation – Netflix.

Well worth a mention among the Masterclasses on offer is the session dedicated to three women directors: Latvia’s Signe Baumane, the UK’s Joanna Quinn and Italy’s Martina Scarpelli, while the Making Of line-up will delve into projects in progress from DreamWorks Animation, Netflix and Baobab Studios.

This 2021 edition of the event is set to showcase African animation, as well as offering up, as ever, an ample selection of short films (44), graduate films, TV and commissioned films, and even VR works, all without forgetting the unmissable International Animated Film Market - Mifa, which will unspool between 15 and 18 June both in person (at the Imperial Palace, with no need for a health pass since attendees will be limited to under 1,000 individuals) and online, hosting its usual Pitches and Works in Progress sessions (news), in addition to its Campus initiative, of which Marguerite Abouet is the patron.

The feature films in competition are as follows:

Official

My Sunny Maad [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michaela Pavlátová
scheda film] - Michaela Pavlátová (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia)
The Ape Star [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] - Linda Hambäck (Denmark/Norway/Sweden)
Snotty Boy [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Marcus H. Rosenmüller e Sa…
scheda film] - Marcus H. Rosenmüller, Santiago López Jover (Germany/Austria)
You Animal! The Nimfa Dimaano Story - Avid Liongoren (Philippines)
Poupelle of Chimney Town – Yusuke Hirota (Japan)
Jiang Ziya: The Legend of Deification - Li Wei, Cheng Teng (China)
The Deer King - Masashi Ando, Masayuki Miyaji (Japan)
Flee [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
scheda film] - Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Denmark/France/Norway/Sweden)
Lamya’s Poem - Alex Kronemer (Canada/USA)
Josee, The Tiger and the Fish - Kotaro Tamura (Japan)
The Crossing [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Florence Miailhe (France/Germany/Czech Republic)

Contrechamp

Le Mont Fuji vu d’un train en marche - Pierre Hébert (Canada)
Archipel - Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Canada)
Cryptozoo - Dash Shaw (USA)
Chicken of the Mound [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Chen Xi (Germany/China)
Climbing - Kim Hye-mi (South Korea)
Absolute Denial [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Ryan Braund (UK)
Bob Spit – We Do Not Like People - Cesar Cabral (Brazil)
My Uncle José - Ducca Rios (Brazil)
City of Lost Thing - Yee Chih-Yen (Taïwan)