2021 Professional Meetings: Inspirational, Innovating, Enlightening!

The irrefutable added value at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market are the professional meetings. The sheer generosity with which internationally renowned studios and experts supply information to the lucky participants is without doubt the primary reason.

Do you want to be inspired? A choice between creation, technique, innovation and training, the 2021 menu is full to bursting, why don’t you take a look:

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Studio Focus

13 virtual Studio Focus will punctuate the Annecy week according to announcements and tributes.

Notably among them, Netflix will be present with 4 sessions whose surprises and exclusives will take pride of place. Starting Monday, Netflix Kids & Family will give a sneak peek at their future family series and feature films, then it’ll be Netflix Adult Animation’s turn to discuss 2 projects with a 3-star cast. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Netflix Anime and Chris Nee will bring together some of today’s most prominent artists to discuss projects that are still some of the best kept secrets…

Chris Nee, Kirk DeMicco, Clare Knight, Guillermo Del Toro

Also on Tuesday, DreamWorks Television will dive into the world of their next feature film Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, the final installment of the Tales of Arcadia trilogy. A great opportunity for the artistic team to take another look at this extraordinary universe.

The end of the week will be dedicated to the Disney group with several presentations including live online Q&As: the team from Locksmith Animation will unveil the latest news on their first feature film Ron’s Gone Wrong, and Pixar Animation Studios will take us backstage on Luca and future 2022 films. Last but not least, Disney EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, Africa) will present their new local projects, and in particular an exclusive extract from the TV series Chip ‘n’ Dale.

Also new studios join this already marvellous programme:

The ONF (The National Film Board of Canada), on top of doing a Q&A session with male and female directors in competition at Annecy, will unveil an exclusive look at their latest creation.

CBS Studios and Paramount+ will host two panel discussions with the creators of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy as well as Stephen Colbert presents Tooning Out the News and the new series The Harper House.

Tencent will discuss its original family-oriented projects developed with European co-producers.

Cinesite will give an exclusive sneak peek at 5 blockbusters created in partnership with 8 leading directors: The Addams Family 2, Extinct, Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, Hitpig and Blazing Samurai.

Toei Company, Ltd. will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider and the next new arrival Fuuto PI, the first animated series of this legendary franchise.

WIA

Women in Animation World Summit

As every year since 2017, the Mifa hosts the Women in Animation International Meetings. And as always, the programme’s rich and thoughtful discussions on current events reflect its esteemed line-up of speakers!

Highlights for this year’s Women in Animation World Summit include a Keynote presented by Justice RX’s Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin, Ph.D. and a Fireside Chat with Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alonso as WIA partners with South Africa’s Triggerfish to explore the theme “The Business Case for Diversity.”

Panels will be presented on Alternative Career Paths and Opportunities for Talent, Greenlighting Diverse Voices, African Creators in Animation, along with special video pieces on WIA’s Mentoring Program, Women in Creative Leadership (featuring artists and filmmakers from all the major studios and a brief spotlight on the creator of this year’s summit artwork, Monica Ahanonu.

VR

Partners Conferences

Whilst waiting for the Mifa Conferences programme, which will be announced shortly, here is what our partners have in store:

Unifrance will propose three discussions concerning the international challenges of French animation films: the emergence of a new generation of women directors, broadcasting animation film at African festivals and writing for an international audience.

The director of the Japan Media Arts Festival invites three directors from leading international festivals to share their visions on animation’s current intensity and its future development, in particular via other forms of art such as video games.

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes In Motion (AIM) will bring together the Artefacts (video games) and Albyon (animation, VFX and VR) studios to present an overview of the creative and technical opportunities possible between the video game and animation sectors.

Session followed by a live Q&A.

ALICE (Animation League for Increased Cooperation in Europe) will present their interregional cooperation methodology aimed at developing a new, more collaborative, model so that SMEs can expand, recruit and innovate.

Session followed by a live Q&A.

VR

Demo Sessions

Demo Sessions are used to giving experimental presentations and do something new here with 6 virtual technological and creative showcases:

Aquarium by Fatfish Lab, the 100% nodal, cross-production and totally flexible project management tool that adapts to your needs.

The latest Unity tools bring speed, limitless creativity and iterations to animators and producers. Get a close look at Mich-L, made entirely with the new (beta) Cinematic Tools feature set.

Xencelabs will provide an insight into their products’ capabilities thanks to their new pen tablet and Quick Keys remote control, a real game-changer for creatives.

A demonstration by Next Lab of the potential of the VR, AR and MR tools and video game render engines for animation prototyping, production and visual effects.

Wacom will explore how the South African film Troll Girl was made, drawn and animated with a Blender Grease Pencil.

Archipel Market and Archipel Content, two complementary solutions developed by Cascade8, the tech branch of the Logical Pictures Group.

Source：Annecy