France seeking spotlight in animation at Annecy
May 27, 2003 - The Hollywood Reporter
PARIS—The 43rd installment of the Annecy International Animation Festival and its accompanying MIFA market have their timing down right this year.
Running June 2-7, the festival marks the beginning of a month that will see four major animated projects (three of them French) hit more than 800 Gallic screens.
The festival and market also comes on the heels of the announcements of the development of two major French-led animation projects, “Roberta” and “Asterix and the Vikings.”
The three French animated features, “Les Triplettes de Belleville” (Belleville Rendezvous), “Kaena la Prophetie” (Kaena: The Prophecy) and “Les Enfants de la Pluie” (The Rain Children), will all be premiered at the festival, with “Enfants” kicking things off June 2.
“This is one of the few festivals where the artist can get in touch with a buyer,” said festival and market director Vincent Ferri in an interview Monday.
“Producers can do their shopping for a production, from finding the artist to finding what they need for postproduction,” said Ferri, referring to the incubator quality of the festival and market that tend to lead to other deals at MIPCOM or MIPTV. “No other festival brings these two sides together.”
To illustrate his point, Ferri points to the emerging market of sending short film clips between cell phones. “We’ll see buyers looking for content here.”
The numbers are slightly off this year, with 200 market exhibitors and 5,500 registered attendees from 45 countries.
Ferri, however, isn’t worried. “Less people are coming, but they are still the decision makers.”
High-profile attendees this year include representatives from Pixar, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks, along with Richard Williams (animation boss for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”), animator Bill Plympton, “Rugrats” executive producer Gabor Csupo and Roy E. Disney. Disney will be bringing an undisclosed Disney film from the Disney archives for a public screening at the festival.
The festival will spotlight both music in animation and Australian animation, with French composer Didier Lockwood, who scored for “Enfants,” in attendance. Ferri attributed the choice of Australia to “the fact that the country is rich in savoir-faire but having trouble getting their productions out of the country.”
Over 250 films taken from 1,400 submissions will screen over the course of the festival.
Among the events planned will be what Ferri calls a “3D CGI Jam,” teaming students and professionals in 12 two-man teams with the task of creating a 45-second animation that will screen at the closing ceremonies.
In terms of animation trends, Ferri sees Europe moving toward feature-length films. “Europeans want to do their own projects, and excel at them, but they’ve got some catching up to do in terms of marketing.” He cites U.K. animation studio Aardman and its success with “Chicken Run” as a good combination of European panache and U.S. marketing.
The three French films look to be working to fill in the gaps. Though making the month top-heavy with animation, the release dates are staggered throughout the month, and each targets a different audience: “Kaena” opens on June 4 targeting adolescents, “Belleville” starts on June 11 as an all-ages offering, and “Enfants” aims for the youngest cinema-goers on June 25.
As the first entirely 3D CGI French production, Ferri sees the most potential for “Kaena,” but also a good amount of risk. “Being the first puts pressure on the film, but this is the future.”
Montreal-based “Belleville” director Sylvain Chomet disagrees with the idea that French animation is enjoying a renaissance, calling the idea “bullshit” (HR 5/18).
“French animation is completely delocalized. The good animators have to leave and work in America, Britain or Germany. We have to create studios that maybe survive by doing advertising but manage to keep (artists) in France,” said Chomet.
The upcoming “Asterix and the Vikings” and “Roberta” look to prove Chomet wrong. French network M6 unveiled plans at Cannes (where “Belleville” also screened out of competition) to produce Europe’s most expensive animated feature film to date, committing 22 million € ($26 million) to the production, due out in 2006.
Days later, $50 million development plans were announced for the live action/digitally animated sci-fi feature “Roberta” by French digital effects studio Sparx, seemingly the embodiment of Ferri when he says, “Soon you won’t be able to tell if it’s computerized or not.”
