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Annecy Festival Unveils Work-in-Progress Selection for 2024

Organizers of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (Annecy Festival), taking place in France June 9-15, have announced the selections for its always-buzzy Work in Progress sessions. The program spotlights animated projects currently in production, offering attendees a chance to hear directly from the creative teams behind them.

This year, 14 feature films, two series and five XR projects were selected. The WIP Feature Films as well as the WIP Series sessions will take place at the Salle Pierre Lamy, while the WIP XR are presented in the brand-new XR&Games Area, located at the Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat.

Dive into the creative processes of …

WIP FEATURE FILMS

A Story about Fire

A Story about Fire

  • China
  • Directed by Wenyu Li
  • Produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio

Adapted from ancient Qiang mythology, this tells the story of a monkey, Ranbiwa, who grows up in an ancient human tribe, following his mother’s footsteps, Awubaji, to the Holy Mountain to find the secret of “warmth”. After going through hardships and peril, he retrieves the firestone from the mouth of the “Beast of Fear.” His hair is burned off and he becomes a human being after attaining Nirvana.

 

Allah Is Not Obliged

Allah Is Not Obliged

  • France, Belgium, Luxembourg
  • Directed by Zaven Najjar
  • Produced by Special Touch Studios, Paul Thiltges Distributions, Need Productions, Lunanime Bvba, Yzanakio

Ten-year-old Guinean orphan Birahima must get to his tutor, Aunt Mahan, who will take care of him. But Mahan lives in Liberia, where a fierce civil war is raging. Yacouba, a great grigriman and bandit, will guide him to Mahan, while selling anti-bullet lucky charms, and convince him to become a child soldier. In the chaos of war, Birahima will grow up too quickly and learn to distrust the stories he is told.

 

Another World

Another World

  • Hong Kong
  • Directed by Kai Chung Ng
  • Produced by Point Five Creations

While helping lost souls to get reborn, the spirit Gudo meets a girl called Yuri. He embarks on a 1,000-year journey to help her through her various incarnations to remove her Seed of Evil, a kernel within her that turns her into a monstrous Wrath if she gets consumed by anger. He learns that helping her find self-forgiveness for the tragic loss of her brother is the only way to save her.

 

Death Does Not Exist

Death Does Not Exist

  • Canada, France
  • Directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière
  • Produced by Embuscade Films, Miyu Productions

After a failed armed attack during which Hélène abandons her companions, Manon, one of her accomplices during the attack, comes back to haunt her. Together, they journey through a fantastic valley, where metamorphoses, toxic powers and great upheavals will soon disrupt the natural order of things. Hélène will have to revisit her intimate and political choices, and the dilemmas that surround them.

 

Housenka

Housenka

  • Japan
  • Directed by Baku Kinoshita
  • Produced by CLAP

Autumn 2023. Akutsu, an elderly inmate serving life in prison, is on the verge of a lonely death in his single cell. A flower, touch-me-not, that can talk like humans says to him, “What a rotten life you had.” Through their “conversation,” Akutsu starts reflecting on his past.

Summer 1986. Akutsu is living with Nana, a woman six years his junior, and her son Kensuke in a shabby apartment with a garden full of touch-me-nots. A one-night victorious comeback by a dying yakuza, and the story of his family recounted by a flower that blooms in prison.

 

Hyakuemu

Hyakuemu

  • Japan
  • Directed by Kenji Iwaisawa
  • Produced by Pony Canyon Inc., Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc., Asmik Ace Inc.

Togashi is born to run. As a kid, he is naturally gifted and wins every 100-meter race without effort. But in sixth grade, he meets Komiya, a transfer student who is full of determination but lacks technique. In teaching him, Togashi gives Komiya a new purpose: to win no matter what. Years pass by, Togashi and Komiya meet again as rivals on the track and reveal their true selves.

 

Kai

Kai

  • Peru
  • Directed by Milton Guerrero
  • Produced by Red Animation Studio

When Kai learns she is the daughter of the great shaman Illari, she decides to obtain magic for herself by finding the lost Temple of Asirus and passing a dangerous test. Unfortunately, Katari, the only other shaman in Kai’s world, wants to possess Kai’s potential power so that he can become an all-powerful Magical Creature. To defeat Katari, Kai learns that she must let go of her selfish dreams of power and glory, and rely on her own grit, ingenuity, empathy and love.

 

The Legendaries

The Legendaries

  • France, Belgium
  • Directed by Guillaume Ivernel
  • Produced by Pan Animation, Belvision, Maybe Movies, 2 Minutes

The Legendaries are a group of five, and each of them are only 10 years old! Danaël, Jadina, Razzia, Shimy and Gryf will unite their powers to free their planet from a terrible curse: a world where adults become children again.

 

Night of the Zoopocalypse

Night of the Zoopocalypse

  • Canada, France, Belgium
  • Directed by Rodrigo Perez-Castro, Ricardo Curtis
  • Produced by Copperheart Entertainment, Charades, Umedia Production, Anton

A meteor crashes into Colepepper Zoo unleashing a virus that transforms the animals into slobbering zombie mutants! Gracie, a young oddball wolf, teams up with a gruff, fearsome mountain lion, Dan, and a motley crew of bickering animals. But when it looks like the whole zoo will be overrun, Gracie comes up with a plan to transform all the animals back to normal and save the zoo. It’s the ZOOPOCALYPSE!

 

Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake

Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake

  • Spain, France, Belgium, Chile
  • Directed by Irene Iborra Rizo
  • Produced by Terremoto AIE, Vivement Lundi!, Panique!

A 12-year-old girl’s life falls apart around her when her family is evicted from their home. After being evicted, Olivia moves to an empty apartment squat in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city with her little brother Tim and her mother, Ingrid.

 

Planets

Planets

  • France, Belgium
  • Directed by Momoko Seto
  • Produced by Ecce Films, Miyu Productions, Umedia Production

Two dandelion seeds are the only survivors of a series of nuclear explosions that destroy the Earth. Thrust out into the cosmos, they seek a new planet where the soil is suitable for the survival of their species.

 

Space Cadet

Space Cadet

  • Canada
  • Directed by Eric San
  • Produced by: Les Films Outsiders Inc.

Robot existed to serve only one purpose: to raise Celeste into the happy, brilliant scientist she is today. Now, the young Space Cadet is departing for her first interstellar mission and Robot is left alone. Time passes and loneliness weighs on him affecting his aging technological structure. In space, a dangerous obstacle jeopardizes Celeste’s mission and memories of her childhood resurface.

 

That Christmas

That Christmas

  • United Kingdom
  • Directed by Simon Otto
  • Produced by Locksmith Animation. Coming soon on Netflix.
  • In attendance: Writer/executive producer Richard Curtis, known for his romantic comedies such as Love Actually, About Time and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The film follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number of turkeys!

 

The Songbirds' Secret

The Songbirds’ Secret

  • France, Belgium
  • Directed by Antoine Lanciaux
  • Produced by Folimage, Les Armateurs

Nine-year-old Lucie joins her mother Caroline, who is leading an archaeological dig in the countryside. With the help of a very special pair of songbirds and her new friend Yann, Lucie is determined to delve into her family history. From inside the basement of a ruined castle to a camper van abandoned on the edge of the woods, this adventure will take them from unexpected surprises to fantastic discoveries!

 


 

WIP SERIES

 

The Doomies

The Doomies

  • France, U.S.A.
  • Directed by Andrès Fernandez
  • Produced by Xilam Animation Studio for The Walt Disney Company U.S.

When Bobby and Romy accidentally open a gateway to evil, they turn their French coastal town, Ouimper, into a hotspot for the supernatural. They battle both literal and inner demons and get roped into more than they expected when they meet the “Chosen One.”

 

The Upside Down River

The Upside Down River

  • France, Belgium, Portugal
  • Directed by Paul Leluc
  • Produced by Dandelooo, Vivi Film, Sparkle Animation

The story of two intersecting quests: Hannah’s to collect a drop of water from the Qjar River to save her bird and Tomek’s to satisfy his desire for adventure. These two quests follow each other, intertwine and finally complement each other.

 


 

WIP XR

 

Garden Alchemy

Garden Alchemy

  • Denmark
  • Directed by Michelle Kranot, Uri Kranot
  • Produced by Khora Contemporary, The Animation Workshop – VIA University College, TinDrum production

An interactive audiovisual and tactile multi-user Experimentarium: a dynamic playground where music, hand-painted animation and immersive installations unite in harmony. The garden is a sensual space for contemplation, exploring human encounters as ecological acts through an immersive experience of the sublime. Knowledge acquired by one participant transfers to others and shared responsibility marks the consequences of our behavior.

 

Ito Meikyu

Ito Meikyu

  • France, Luxembourg
  • Directed by Boris Labbé
  • Produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Les Films Fauves, Parangon

Interior and exterior, transparency and opacity, exhibitionism and voyeurism, lightness and heaviness, feminine and masculine: all these notions either oppose or unite in the infinite cycle of a labyrinth with no way out. Japanese art is seen as if through a kaleidoscope, trapped inside fractal architectures composed of walls, frames, posts and beams in geometric latticework.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom

Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom

  • Japan, France
  • Directed by Kenichi Suzuki
  • Produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks, Atlas V

Universal Century 0096. Three years after the last conflict between Neo Zeon and the Earth Federation, an independent mercenary organization is hired by the Earth Federation to track down a former Commander who joined Neo Zeon remnants “Sleeves.” An all-new and epic adventure into the heart of one of Japan’s most iconic anime universes.

 

Pagnol the Magician

Pagnol the Magician

  • France
  • Directed by Nicolas Cabos
  • Produced by What The Prod, Small Creative

An inventor and trailblazer, Marcel Pagnol was always at the forefront of film technology, pioneering experiments with colour, transition to sound and shooting on location. He is considered to be a founding father of post-war neo-realism. Infused with tenderness, authenticity and universal appeal, Pagnol’s films are extremely avant-garde.

 

Telling Our Story: Our Connection with the Land, Dreams and Skyworld

Telling Our Story: Our Connection with the Land, Dreams and Skyworld 

  • Canada
  • Directed by Karine Lanoie-Brien, Kim Picard, Élodie Pollet
  • Produced by Terre Innue

One day, Shimun, a curious young Innu, asks his mother Manian, “Mom, where do we come from?” And so begins a fascinating journey through the rich storytelling traditions of the First Peoples from the eastern part of Turtle Island, from the creation of Light to the present day.

 

 


See the full program schedule for Annecy Festival 2024 at annecyfestival.com.

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