French films in shambles and an American landing

2023-04-27 20:28:00

The Annecy Festival unveiled, Thursday, April 27, during its traditional Parisian press conference, its selection of feature films and highlights for its 47^e editing. Overview in four points.

► Can’t wait for Sunday!

Annecy thinks big. Faced with strong growth in the number of films submitted and accredited (13,000 during the last edition, after two years of health crisis), the event, which is already one of the most important world cinema animation, decided to add a day, starting a day earlier. Instead of starting on Monday, the festival will be launched the day before with an opening ceremony on Sunday evening June 11.

“With the quality and quantity of feature films booming, we needed to add screeningsexplains Marcel Jean, the artistic delegate. It was also incongruous to open the festival on Monday evening after a festival day. A director whose film was screened before the opening could see this as bad manners done to him. » It is also an opportunity for the event to open up more to the local public by guaranteeing them a quota of places during special screenings.

► Many French, Asian and… Hungarian productions

The extra day allowed the breeders to be more generous. Twenty-three feature films will be in the running in the two competitive sections (official and reverse shot): a record! “This is the edition for which we have undoubtedly received the most quality films, even if their number has been stable (around a hundred), assures Marcel Jean. But I don’t know if one of them will prevail like they could my zucchini life (2016) or I lost my body (2019). »

The list includes many feature films produced or co-produced by France: seven out of eleven, in official competition alone, including the highly anticipated Linda wants chicken!, by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach. But there are also many Asian works, three Japanese films and one Chinese in the competitive sections. Added to this are four other countries in event sessions. Surprise guest of this selection, Hungary is present in four productions.

► Works rooted in reality or in “Japanim”

A strong trend in the films chosen at Annecy for several years: the real permeates many films, whether they are biographical, Leo by Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon, account of the French years of Leonardo da Vinci, or fictional.

In Art College 1994the Chinese Liu Jian recounts the hopes of art students on the Hangzhou campus in the 1990s. “The distance that animation allows makes the film possible in the Chinese context”, point to Marcel Jean. Prevented in 2017 from coming to Annecy by the Chinese regime for his previous feature film, Have a nice day, Liu Jian should be able to come to the shores of the lake this year.

Another trend: “Japanese “anime” has a clear influence on Western productionss, like Mars ExpressFrench science fiction film by Jérémie Perrin, or Sirocco and the kingdom of draftsFranco-Belgian fantasy film by Benoît Chieux”, observes the artistic delegate. “It would have been inconceivable ten or fifteen years ago. A new generation of directors delivers works whose aesthetics are nourished by Ghibli productions or Japanese animated series. »

► American-Mexican landing

Back in force last year in Annecy, after having been deprived of it for two years, studios and platforms across the Atlantic maintain a strong presence. The five natural elements ofElementarythe latest from Pixar (in theaters in France on June 21), will meet the sirens and giant squids of Ruby, l’ado Krakena Dreamworks production (released June 28), and the shapeshifting creatures of Nimona and especially the valiant hens of Chicken Run : Dawn of the Nuggetssequel to the famous feature film from Aardman studios, under the Netflix banner.

Not to mention Universal, which will present the first images of Migrationa film by the brilliant Benjamin Renner (Ernest and Celestine, The Big Bad Fox) produced by Illumination (The Minions, Super Mario Bros…).

They will cohabit with their neighbors from Mexico, country guest of honor this year, which will come to show the richness of the animation of its country, apart from the successes (Hollywood) of Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio) or Jorge Gutierrez (The Legend of Manolo).