From Buzz Lightyear, the astronaut in “Toy Story”, to films on art during the Holocaust: shaken up like the rest of the 7th art by the pandemic and the supremacy of platforms, animated cinema finds itself at from Monday in Annecy.
The International Animation Film Festival, the main global meeting of the sector, is held until Saturday, with the awarding of the Cristal d’Or to the best film in competition.
New testimony to the importance of the festival, most of the majors, which like the streaming platforms will be united within the international market, have chosen Annecy to unveil their latest blockbusters or the first images of their most anticipated projects out of competition.
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“The Minions 2: Once Upon a Time Gru”, a new opus derived from a saga that began 12 years ago with “Despicable Me” and which has since brought in billions of dollars, opens the ball on Monday, before its release in France on July 6.
Will also be unveiled the first images of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)”, expected in 2023, new marriage of the world of superheroes and animation, and those of “Pinocchio” in animation of Guillermo del Toro, Oscar winner for “The Shape of Water” and that Netflix will bring.
Finally, Pixar, the Disney subsidiary which revolutionized the genre a quarter of a century ago with “Toy Story”, will conclude the festivities with “Buzz Lightyear” which imagines the life of the astronaut who inspired the toy of “Toy Story” (French release June 22).
The 2022 edition of the Festival, the first to be held entirely in physics since the health crisis, is intended to be a “fireworks of creativity and diversity”, argued its director Mickaël Marin.
Because beyond these “star” films, the Festival wants to continue to play the role of researcher. Its Golden Crystal has in the past propelled filmmakers such as the Japanese Hayao Miyazaki (“Porco Rosso” in 1993) or the Frenchman Michel Ocelot – who will receive a Crystal of Honor and present “the Pharaoh, the Savage and the Princess” , three decades after being crowned for “Kirikou”.
Michael Ocelot. (Screenshot)
Rooms or platforms
Ten feature films will try to succeed “Flee”, a film nominated for the Oscars after being crowned in the lakeside city. Visible until the end of July on arte.tv, this film on the journey of a young Afghan homosexual fleeing his country for Denmark will be released on August 24 in theaters.
Four directors are in the running, including Atsuko Ishizuka for the initiatory story of three Japanese teenagers (“Goodbye”) or Amandine Fredon, co-director with Benjamin Massoubre of a tribute to Sempé and Goscinny, already unveiled at Cannes, “Le Petit Nicolas – What are we waiting for to be happy”.
Once again, Annecy is honoring testimonials or films inspired by real events, whether they return to historical tragedies or document current events.
“Charlotte”, by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, will retrace the fate of the Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, murdered at the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz at the age of 26, when “Nayola” is a dive into the history of the Angola through the violent destiny of three women.
Apart from the main competition, it will be about the Armenian genocide, through the fate of a survivor, Inna Sahakyan, silent film actress (“Aurora’s Sunrise”), or young Mexican migrants in the United States (“Home is Somewhere Else”).
If the films will be shown on the big screen, the question of the fight between platforms and dark rooms, sometimes within the same major, will be very present in Annecy.
Animation is one of the battlefields of this struggle for influence. At Disney, the debate is not yet settled: if “Buzz” is released in theaters, the multinational has once again provoked the fury of French cinemas by announcing at the beginning of June that it would broadcast its next production, “Strange World”, expected in end of the year, directly online.
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