Annecy Festival Residency: Report and Outlook

The Annecy Festival Residency press conference has just ended. Mickaël Marin, Director of CITIA, Sophie Rotkopf, Vice-President Culture and Heritage for the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Myriam Lhuillier, Vice-President Culture and Heritage for the Haute-Savoie Department, and Karen Toliver, Vice-President Animated Film at Netflix, presented the report regarding this second residency as well as the long-term prospects provided by their partnerships.

Helmed by Mickaël Marin, the Annecy Festival Residency is one element in the continuity of the activities conducted by CITIA through the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the Mifa (International Animation Film Market) and the development of creative industries on the territory and worldwide. On an international scale, it is designed to assist directors of animation feature films in their graphic development phase.

Netflix has confirmed its 3-year commitment as partner of the Annecy Festival Residency. As for the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the Haute-Savoie Department, they have confirmed their involvement in assisting and supporting creation and their aspiration to encourage the emergence of projects linked with local animation players. Furthermore, Géraldine Baché, coordinator of the Annecy Festival Residency, thanked all the other partners, whether institutional such as the DRAC and the CNC or technical such as MSI, Wacom, ToonBoom and TVPaint who provided the project leaders with their technological tools and expertise.

The current residency, running from 4th April to 30th June 2022, has provided the winners the chance to report on their projects’ progress, to seek new partners through the Mifa network and to inspire new applicants!

The directors of the selected projects, Dino Doom on the Desert Planet (Zsuzsanna Kreif & Balázs Turai, Hungary), Hanta (Emilio Ramos, Mexico) and Deep Fake (Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis, France) closed this conference by sharing their experience and revealing the result of their residency work.