The Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market 2024 saw record attendance, with 17,400 attending this year's edition of the annual event in southeastern France last week. The event was also physically larger than ever, with more screens and venues in edition to the Imperial Palace hotel and convention centre.
Alongside announcements and previews of work in progress, the festival saw screenings of some of the most anticipated new animation films coming this year. Here are some of the highlights.
01. Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow
One of the biggest hits at Annecy 2024 was Gints Zilbalodis’ new animated film Flow, which picked up three awards and has been snapped up by major distributors. The film follows a cat who takes to a ship with other animals in the wake of disastrous global flooding. The film won this year’s jury award and audience prize as well as best music.
Tweeting after a clip premiered at Cannes Un Certain Regard 2024 back in May, Guillermo del Toro wrote: “If I could wish for the future of animation, these images would be its magnificent, breathtaking start.” It looks absolutely stunning, and we can't wait for its release on 30 October.
02. Memoir of a Snail
With a very different style, Memoir of Snail won the Annecy Cristal for best animated feature. The Australian animated film from Adam Elliot of Mary and Max fame tells the story of a lonely misfit who loves books and collects snails. It was praised for its darkly humorous and heartfelt storytelling. The film has been acquired by IFC Films for North America with release expected in October.
03. Spermageddon
The Norwegian CG comedy Spermageddon was perhaps the wildest film to show at Annecy 2024. its international premiere received much applause during this year's Midnight Specials for its story of all-singing, all-dancing sperm cells. Director Tommy Wirkola and animator Ramsus A. Silversten's film has been described as Inside Out for adults. Nordisk Film plans a general release this year.
04. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
For a more family-oriented offering, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, which headlined the Netflix showcase, looks set to be a worthy addition to the canon of our favourite stop-motion tea-drinking, Wensleydale-eating crime-fighting man and dog duo. The film will be shown on the BBC in the UK and then Netflix globally in December.
05. Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Twenty minutes of footage from Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim was shown at Annecy, and it was, by all reports, epic. Directed by Kenji Kamiyama, the anime feature is set 183 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and tells the story of Rohan king Helm Hammerhand and his family as they defend their kingdom against Dunlendings. The film's due for release on 13 December.
Other pieces that got a lot of talk at this year's event included Adult Swim's Common Side Effects and Miyu Production's Planètes and Cecile McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse.
As for news on future developments, it was announced that Cartoon Network Studios is working on an Adventure Time movie and two spin-off series. Bad Bunny and Will Ferrell are working on Dropz with Paramount Animation and Disney has a Moon Girl musical shorts series in the works along with Big City Greens Season 5 and Disney Junior’s Ariel.
Brave director Mark Andrews will helm the samurai dinosaur Series Kyoryu, and Jared Mass's Chalkdust Animation Studios is working on an animated adaptation of C.S. Lewis short stories called Boxen: the Childhood Chronicles of C.S Lewis.
