ANNECY 2024: Short Films in Competition – Official 1
Annecy is back and bigger than ever! As cliche as that may sound the festival has certainly ballooned in recent years, in 2023 the festival added an extra day and this year new venues and extra screenings find themselves piling on top of an already packed programme showcasing the world of animation.
The world Annecy has begun celebrating in recent years seems to be aiming towards a mainstream view of animation and something that certainly builds on the appearance of Guillermo Del Toro who, in 2022 bombastically enthused that ‘Animation is not a fucking genre!’ to a frenzied Bonleiu. It’s great to see these filmmakers who are either heavily invested or even just share the odd dalliance with animation take centre stage. As animation basks it’s much needed growth in the public eye, at the festival we see the likes of Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam, Deborah and Zack Snyder, Andy Serkis and even Jean-Paul Gaultier taking up the headliner slots, which shows what a monumental shift both the festival and the world of animation has taken in recent years. It’s worth noting that 10-15 years ago Regina Pessoa, Henry Selick and Adam Elliot – who are all attending, would have been centre stage at the festival so for good or for ill it seems animation is changing and attracting more and more outsiders who have a foothold in different art forms to explore their craft in animation.
As the making of sessions, workshops, pitches, meetings and markets jostle for attention in the overflowing programme it’s important to remember what is at the heart of the event – the films! With this in mind I’m going to try my best to work my way through the short film programme and give those who are missing out a chance to if you’re at the festival or not.
Short Films in Competition 1
The selection is off to a vibrant start with Marie Vieillevie’s debut short film Kaminhu (France). We feel like we’re falling into the sketchbook of Joanna, a globetrotter who who takes her sketchbook to the Cape Verde Islands where she meets the locals, including Lito, a young fisherman who welcomes her to a world of colour and vibrancy before reminding the traveller of the world of privilege she has come from.
Kaminhu
With echos of Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Tennis, Oranges (Sean Pecknold, United States) tells the tale of a wayward robot hoover and an elderly rabbit with a theatrical past. Buoyed by the music of Debussy this short shares a charming symbiotic relationship between the bunny and the appliance as each are able to live the life they wish through one another and manages to be charming, funny and emotional.
Tennis, Oranges
Kaweauso by Akihito Izuhara (Japan) is a slow paced, but engaging eulogy for the Japanese sea otter. Though not overtly laden with message, it soon becomes clear what the film is about and the foreboding atmosphere alongside the visuals build the tension and point the finger towards mankind.
Kawauso
Bringing some light relief to the programme is Free the Chickens (Matús Vizár, Slovakia Czech Republic) a comedy caper about a team of oddly matched activists and their attempt to save a collection of sorry looking chickens from a battery farm. As the heist unfolds we see the gang doing more harm than good with their efforts contradicting their values and beliefs. It’s the type of joke that seems a little old fashioned and perhaps even punching down, but the pacing and the storytelling seem to have earned it a place in the lineup.
Free the Chickens
The next film is rather reminiscent of the type of film you could have seen at Annecy at any point of it’s 60+ year history, which is no bad thing. Kind of like Moana Lisa Descending a Staircase (in search of sugar lumps), Horse Portrait (Witold Giersz, Poland) shares artistic interpretations of horses, shifting in design through a cavalcade of artistic interpretation as artists such as Da Vinci, Picasso, Rubens and many others all get the equine treatment in this brief film that trots it’s way onto the programming lineup. Though beautifully rendered and animated the skilled work is slightly marred by the constant appearance of signatures throughout.
Horse Portrait
Closing the first competition strand is La Voix des Sirènes by Gianluigi Toccafondo (France, Italy) which takes the audiences on a metamorphic slither under the sea to meet a myriad of aquatic monsters, among them a mermaid and her brood. The mesmeric technique and colourful blend of paint and film, draw the characters beutifully into being and onto the fullness of the screen.
La Voix