The global event dedicated to animation, The International Festival of Annecy, will take place from 13th to 18th June 2016, and, for the first time, will be giving pride of place to French animation, as well as a programme focusing on animation in advertising.
Now is the time to pay tribute to French animation!
A tribute well-timed, justified and even necessary, but one that is anxious not to sink to chauvinism: Annecy is nonetheless in France, and seen from that perspective, it’s a little like putting yourself in the spotlight! To avoid such an embarrassing situation, we have imagined a set of contrasting visions: the French animation on offer will be a reflection of how the rest of the world sees it. A dozen programme planners have accepted to share their vision of French animation and take on the roles of mirrors and prisms to present a fragmented and colourful kaleidoscopic image of animated filmmaking in France.
French Animation: The Mirror Effect, is a series of twelve programmes that will reveal how French animation is perceived abroad.
Within world production as a whole, French animation stands out through its diversity, ambition and vitality. Since Émile Reynaud and his pantomimes lumineuses and the fantasmagories of Émile Cohl, between, on the one hand, the giants of avant-garde from the north of Europe, namely Starewitch, Alexeieff or Bartosch, and on the other, the courage of one Paul Grimault, who set up a studio based on the American model, an unparalleled filmmaking industry has evolved, boasting the names of such great ambassadors as Laloux, Laguionie and Ocelot.
For over 50 years, television has been the birthplace of significant series where great creators have distinguished themselves. Firstly, Jean Image, Jacques Rouxel and Serge Danot, who populated the imaginations of millions of children with a clown, a strange bird and a roundabout, followed by the innovator Georges Lacroix and his fabulous geometry, or more recently Delphine Maury and her political-literary stories… And in the middle of all that, the biggest names have worked in advertising, from Cohl to Grimault, as well as from Marius O’Galop and Robert Lortac to Pierre Coffin.
Studios (La Fabrique, Les Armateurs, Folimage, Xilam…) and little and large production companies (Les Films de l’Arlequin, JPL, Vivement lundi !, Les Films du Nord, Autour de minuit, Sacrebleu, Je suis bien content and many others…) have sprung up and played hosts to exceptional talents: Florence Miailhe, Sylvain Chomet, Jacques-Rémy Girerd, Serge Elissalde, Pascal Le Nôtre, Michaël Dudok de Wit, Benjamin Renner, Jérémy Clapin, Franck Dion, Sébastien Laudenbach, Pierre-Luc Granjon, Bruno Collet, Sarah Van Den Boom, Jean-Claude Rozec, Marie Paccou, Édouard Salier, Stéphanie Lansaque and François Leroy, Bastien Dubois, Osman Cerfon, Céline Devaux, Boris Labbé…
It is said that in France you can find the best animation schools in the world, or at least the biggest range of training programmes available between GOBELINS, l’école de l’image, Supinfocom, La Poudrière, l’ENSAD, Émile-Cohl, l’EMCA, l’ESMA and others. Animators all over the world are envious of the French funding system, which has enabled short film production to thrive and, since the emblematic success of Michel Ocelot’s Kirikou and the Sorceress, created an impressive feature film industry.
The helping hand from French artisans to the phenomenal success of Illumination (the Despicable Me franchise), Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud has certainly managed to turn heads towards France.
See you in Annecy in June for this review of contrasting visions!
Marcel Jean, directeur artistique Festival de Anneecy
