The 47e edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which was held from June 11 to 17, will now occupy a special place in people’s minds. Opened three days after the knife attack which occurred on Thursday June 8 in the city of Haute-Savoie, the annual meeting was held as planned, defying amazement and dread, appearing for several days as a act of resistance against barbarism and the ugliness of the world. As defined and desired by the organizers as well as the ecologist mayor of the city, François Astorg. Everyone had made a point of recalling during the first evening of the Festival how necessary it was, in this painful moment, to try to make triumph the conviviality, the benevolence, the ” beautiful looks and colors” placed on life, the better to pay homage to it.
More than ever, therefore, this desire to unite peoples, cultures and origins has reigned in Annecy, the diversity of which merges into one and the same language: animation, a genre which, by the universal dimension of its expression, ‘exports more than the others and can bring families together around the same film. As can be seen in particular during the nocturnal screenings which take place outdoors every year. Postponed during this edition from Sunday 11 to Monday 12, “as a sign of support for the families and the victims”these met with the same success as in previous editions.
Seven days instead of six
In the halls (full from morning to night), it was the same. And this throughout the duration of the festival, which, for the first time, was held for seven days instead of six, due to an increased demand for accreditations and the growing number of excellent films received, from more and more countries. Among them, twenty-three feature films of extreme quality were legitimately selected to compete in the two competitive sections (official and Contrechamp).
In the first category, the highest award was given to Linda wants chicken!, by the French duo Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach. Presented in May at ACID, at the Cannes Film Festival, the film which therefore left Annecy with the Cristal for feature film (also winning the GAN Foundation Prize) is a marvel of impertinence whose depth draws as an incredible story. Linda, a little girl who lives alone with her mother, persists one day in wanting to eat a chicken with peppers. If we only know at the end what this apparent whim takes on, it leads us in the meantime in a mad race, burlesque, even absurd at times, during which characters with strong characters intervene.
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