The 2022 Annecy International Animated Film Festival (13-18 June) will pay tribute to Swiss animated film by way of over 100 films presented across 14 special programmes. It’s a showcase which will treat the public to a highly detailed panorama of Swiss production over the past one hundred years, offering up a journey in time through Swiss animated cinema from its very beginnings to the international successes of recent years. This special focus was created in collaboration with various Swiss institutions, including Fantoche (Baden), Animatou (Geneva), the Swiss Film Archive (Lausanne), GIFF (Geneva), the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU) and Swiss Films.

Since Les Amours de monsieur Vieux Bois (1827) created by the father of comic books Rodolphe Töpffer and its animated adaptation entitled Histoire de monsieur Vieux Bois by Lortac and Cavé released almost a century later (1921), Swiss animated film has continued to surprise audiences and to take flight in all genres and styles. Disciples of the form have become authors in their own right, admired by audiences and critics alike; we’re primarily thinking of Gisèle and Nag Ansorge, Julius Pinschewer and Georges Schwizgebel, and we can’t not mention brothers Sam and Fred Guillaume (Max & Co [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Claude Barras
scheda film]), Isabelle Favez (who gave us the short film Tarte aux pommes), Marina Rosset (of short film La Main de l’ours), Michaela Müller (short film Miramare) or Michael Frei (short film Plug & Play), or Marcel Barelli, Claude Luyet, Claudius Gentinetta, Anja Kofmel, Zoltán Horváth and Maja Gehrig. Another emblematic example of this effervescence is Écorce by Samuel Patthey and Silvain Monney, which walked away with the Crystal for Best Short here in Annecy in 2021.

Swiss productions will also enjoy a strong presence in the festival’s Official Selection, as well as in Annecy’s International Animated Film Market (Mifa), notably by way of 13 short films in competition and a pavilion hosting Swiss talent. Selected films include The Invention of Less by young director Noah Erni and Miracasas by Raphaëlle Stolz and Augusto Zanovello, both gracing the short films competition.

This imposing historic panorama will be further enhanced by retrospective screenings dedicated to Claude Barras, Isabelle Favez and Marcel Barelli. The trailer for this latest edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival has been created by Geneva’s Nadasdy Film studio, which was founded in 2001 by Zoltán Horváth and Nicolas Burlet.