You don’t get used to it. The Annecy Animated Film Festival may well present each year the flagship of what is being done in the genre all over the world, we find each edition more remarkable, more exceptional than the previous one. The 48e, which was held from June 9 to 15, did not fail to follow the rule, revealing a selection of short and feature films whose creativity, quality, diversity of themes addressed and aesthetics implemented n have ceased to surprise and dazzle us. Increasingly sophisticated 2D and 3D computer techniques and the arrival of new countries in animated production (and therefore new cultures and new imaginations) contribute to this excellence.
During the press conference given in Paris, before the festivities began, the artistic delegate of the festival, Marcel Jean, warned: “Every year we receive more and more films of higher and higher quality. Selecting just over twenty films in competition is becoming more and more difficult. Whereas twelve years ago, we struggled to remember ten. »
As a result, unlike previous editions, festival-goers’ predictions on the winners fluctuated without really making it possible to designate the favorites. We can therefore imagine the headache for the jury which nevertheless managed to present its prize list, Saturday June 15, during the closing evening, awarding the Feature Film Crystal to Memoir of a Snail by Australian director Adam Elliot, already crowned with the highest award at Annecy in 2009 for his feature film Mary and Max. Which recounted the meeting of an unsightly little girl, mocked by boys, and a lonely, obese kid with Asperger’s syndrome. The filmmaker remains in the same verve, grating, melancholic and dark.
A Cat’s Spectacular Odyssey
Returning to modeling clay and stop motion production, this time it features a brother and sister (who is passionate about snails) separated after the death of their mother and whose father is a former artist, paraplegic and alcoholic since the death of his wife. Addressing once again the themes of loneliness, rejection, disappearance and mourning, Memoir of a Snail confronts us with characters with sad faces hollowed out by deep dark circles that turn the heart. But whose spirit illuminates us. A little gem.
There was another, in Annecy, Flow, the cat who was no longer afraid of water, by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis, 3D film, without dialogue or commentary which stands at the height of a cat, threatened by rising waters on an Earth where every presence human has disappeared. A marvel of realism mixed with poetry and humor, this film takes you on a spectacular and moving odyssey during which the cat, embarked on a makeshift boat, will have to learn to cohabit with a kleptomaniac lemur, a good-natured labrador and a temperamental heron. This Noah’s Ark will see a prehistoric whale emerge from the depths, gigantic forests and semi-sunken cities. The film, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 30, has won us over. Like many others since he won the Jury Prize, the Public Prize and the Gan Foundation Prize.
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