Animated: a word that became banal and yet carries the idea of « give life, life breath, mind » to something dinerte. The animation proceeds as if by magic. If we travel through international festivals every year, however, the Annecy festival remains one of our most appreciated stages, due to aggressive programming and an environment conducive to all encounters, regardless of the status of each other. In Annecy, we exchange independent studios and large houses like Disney, Dreamwork and Sony look at each other and meet at the MIFA beach every night. Animation cinema is a collective work like no other. This year again, Annecy's festival showed an eclectic and lively program. We share our view of the festival with Kevin Giraud, journalist of the Belgian paper media Overprints. The closing ceremony was also rooted in the horror of reality and the message of support was addressed to Iranians at the closing ceremony. We will conclude this post-session with 15 films that marked us in Annecy; the list is accessible at the end of the page.
Logbook
Podcast MaG & Overprints
Window on the Middle East from Annecy: the law of hammer and anvil
It is never enough to say how much festivals are protected bubbles from intellectual misery, this scourge that poisons public debate, today locked by the extreme right and the rise of fascism all over the world. The flagrante « Two double standards » of an international order with agony sign the bankruptcy of the Westblind to the genocide in Gaza, of which he is collectively complicit.
With his movie The Area of Interest (read our critical and our balance sheet of the year on the urgency of putting the terms), Jonathan Glazer reminded us that the term become taboo should never be « a calcified moment of history ». With a speech of support to the broken Persian and Arab populations, the closing ceremony was also caught up in the new Middle East fire following Israel's flash attack on its historical enemy, Iran. His military deterrent capabilities have been seriously undermined, as the hundreds of civilian deaths inflicted by the IDF to eliminate the Revolutionary Guards one by one, in apparent disregard of the basic rules of a conspicuous international law. Or how to put out a fire with napalm. A sadly predictable escalation announced by the innumerable official provocations of the State occupying the Palestinian territories from Nakba: the image of Ambassador of Israel passing the UN Charter to the shredder After a symbolic vote on the accession of Palestine, a year earlier, the crimes to come that the countries of the North refuse to recognize. So we cling to brave public positions like here in Annecy's dark rooms.
Iranian director Sepideh Farsi (see our Interview), member of the feature film jury, had to leave Annecy hastily, leaving a message of hope addressed to festivalgoers and artists who came to celebrate animated cinema. The whole room rose to applaud the message of a stubborn artist. From Gaza to Iran, the civilian population is being held hostage to the avenging imperialism of leaders who seek only to flee their own responsibilities to strengthen their power. Netanyahu's flight forward since 7 October is the most cynical illustration of this, as the population is now largely acquiesced in the wars waged against all neighbouring countries to believe that surveys To the great dam of the hostages still held by Hamas.
The jury also paid tribute to Parnia Abbasi, an Iranian poet who died under Israeli bombs with his entire family as required by the Israeli protocol already used against Fatma Hassuna and so many other anonymous people. Many Iranians met during the festival did not yet know if they could return to their country. Some filmmakers were going to take a long bus trip from Turkey to join their loved ones before the internet blackout that leaves us in recent days without news. A common denominator of the Iranian voices with whom we exchanged: the dignity with which they were preparing to join theirs, caught in stride between the hammer of the Iranian regime and the anvil of the IDF.
If Art is an act of resistance, the race to « law of the strongest » initiated by tyrants such as Trump, Netanyahu and Putin makes even more essential the need to produce works that oppose the outbreak of nationalism. Fundamentalisms on all sides threaten the already precarious balance of the world born from the ashes of the Second World War. Let us not be afraid to speak; international solidarity is the only possible horizon. There are still spaces of resistance; let us seize them. From the Iranian and Israeli enemy theocracies, from Sepideh Farsi to Nadav lapid, contemporary creation bears witness to his ability to resist univocal discourses. The dead have names; These few lines (as vain as they may be) pay tribute to them. The verses of Parnia Abbasi and his poem Star extinguished sounded in the enclosure of Bonlieu and echoed today; Can they ever help restore belief in international justice. There is no « just war », only the deaths by legions to the benefit of autocrats. War is a gulf from which no victor comes. It is the failure of our common humanity that constitutes a threat existential for the future. How many more voices will die in indifference?
The Star Off
I cried for both of us
For you,
And for me.
You blow my tears,
stars erased,
in the wind of your sky.
In your world,
the light is delivered.
In mine,
It's just shadow theater.
Somewhere,
you and me
We're finishing our story.
The most beautiful poem in the world
shut down in silence.
Somewhere,
You're taking birth.
You scream
the whisper of life.
And me,
in a thousand places,
I'm undoing myself.
I burn myself
become a dead star,
lost smoke
in your sky.
15 films to see at the Annecy Festival
Into the Mortal World
China| Release date : NC | Implementation : Zhong Ding | Official competition
A young pretender among the gods, Jing Feng, descends into the mortal world to seek the truth and reveal the plot that excluded his mother from heaven. On his way, he crossed the path of a malevolent mortal girl who sought to make the opposite journey to find her mother. With Into the Mortal World, Chinese animation finds a new candidate of choice to decline the folklore of the Middle Empire in an explosive film. No time dead at the rendezvous; on the contrary, the images scroll at all speed, even to steal those who are not accustomed to the crazy rhythm of Chinese studios. A resolutely funny and touching film where one finds, of course, a specification sticking as close as possible to the folklore of the celestial Empire, but with a remarkable performance. We bow to the ability to surprise the spectator by the power of emotions and the total resolution to realize a drama in all senses of the term. Disney has a problem!
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Girl who store Time
China | Release date : NC | Implementation : Zhou Tienan, Yu Ao | Official competition
Another Chinese film noticed, The Girl who stole Time is not lacking panache. Undoubtedly the most complex of the two films in terms of scenario and staging, this feature film, also presented in competition, tells the story of a modest girl from a modest fishing village. After a shipwreck, Qian Xiao inadvertently finds the « Time dial » who is being hunted relentlessly by a criminal organization worthy of Team Rocket. The girl then teamed up with Seventeen, a stoic handman, ready to do anything to regain the power of the dial. Playing codes, the film does not hesitate to multiply references during an adventure that blooms the films of the 80s between action, romance and humour. Effective, even if perhaps a little confusing in its outcome, The Girl who store Time is a flamboyant and devilishly expressive film. An animation nugget!
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Arco
France | Release date : 22/10/2025| Implementation : Ugo Welcome | Official competition | Interview to come
Two years earlier in Annecy, Jérémie Périn presented Mars Express, a cynical and not very engaging SF film about the future of humanity. This year, the festival opts for a glimmer of hope with Arco, also presented in competition at the Cannes festival. The film by Ugo Bienvenue tells the story of a little child who has fallen from heaven and hastened into the past. Confronting two visions of the future, the first turning to technology in the service of man, the second refocusing on the osmosis with the environment, Ugo Bienvenu signs a work less pessimistic than many contemporary productions. The great collapse is not what one believes and Arco comes to remind us that rainbows appear paradoxically only after the rain. Well written, the characters are interpreted by a panel of actors who give life to the story. A film for young and old that takes away the crystal of the long film with the beard ofAmelia and the metaphysics of the tubes.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
All you need is kill
Japan | Release date : NC | Implementation : Kenichiro Akimoto | Midnight special
Attention, love for video game lovers... At the crossover of the unequal Return and comedy One day without end, All you need is kill takes up the concept of repetition of a single day in a loop. Whatever the weight of death, every day our heroine ends minced with hordes of alien insectoids that would not deny Starship Troopers. Every time this young girl taciturnes, she wakes up in the same place, in bed with the traditional awakening that Phil Connors destroyed in the cult comedy of Harold Ramis. The hic, every time you die, you have to go back from 0 to try to survive in the face of an overpowering enemy. What if we had to resolve to attack the enemy? We feel how much Kenichiro Akimato and his teams grew up with the video game. Who never tried tirelessly to beat a superpowering boss of Sekiro until you pull out the victory in extremis? Metaphor of blind perseverance, All you need is kill declines the concept of loop until exhaustion. It is brutal, striking, funny and particularly successful in terms of artistic direction. The very sharp style of the characters recalls the bd and the virevoltant animation offers very beautiful sequences of action. An original film that sins only by a climax a little too agreed to its original proposal.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥
Another World
Hong Kong | Release date : NC | Implementation : Tommy Kai Chung NG | Midnight special
After death, just before reincarnation, the souls of the deceased pass through the fantastic kingdom of the Other World. Gudo, a passing spirit helps transient souls to reincarnate. Gudo will embark on a perilous mission to help Yuri, a princess whose father was murdered. Another World takes up well-known themes of animes, especially on uncontrolled rabies that turns the host into a plague. Film born in Hong Kong, Another World adopts a penciled graphic style of all beauty and that does not hesitate to show horror. Disturbing at the beginning, the intrigue ends up revealing itself during a thousand-yearly narrative, which carries the inseparable violence of the history of humanity. Adapted from Saijo Naka's manga Sen nen ki, Another World Perhaps suffers from the complexity of its history, the determinants of which are difficult to integrate into the format of the feature film. Even though the film lacks emotion, there is still an intriguing twilight work.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥
Amélie and tube metaphysics
France | Release date : 25/06/2025 | Implementation : Mailys Vallade and Liane-cho han |Official competition
Adaptation of the eponymous book of Amelia Nothomb, Amélie and tube metaphysics certainly heeled Arco to grab the Silver Crystal. With its artistic direction with pastel hues and these big eyes that pass through the spectator, impossible to remain insensitive to the charm of a « marshmallow film » par excellence. A remarkable inventiveness, the film by Mailys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han is a jewel of writing. Until the age of two, Amélie is assimilated to a digestive tract, a staring vegetable, so « Lifeless » Reminds the little narrator who grows omniscient. All the salt in the film comes from the fact that the story is told from the perspective of the child, then considering itself the center of the world. Growing up, « Love » of his Japanese name which means « rain » sees his universe collapse. The Japan she loves so much is crossed by the stigma of war. Is her Japanese childhood just a parenthesis? « At that age, you notice everything but you don't understand anything. » Drop the young Amelie. A sentence that alone symbolizes all the beauty of childhood that is nothing but a permanent passage from trauma to another through world learning. A French animation candy for young and old to support in the room from 25 June.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The egg of the angel
Japan | Release date : 1985 (next to the cinema)| Implementation : Mamaru Oshii | Annecy classics
Momoru Oshii... a name that for many evokes the gloomy essence of the 90s. Ten years before his masterpiece Ghost in the Shell, Angel egg 1985. A mysterious, avant-garde film; soporific will tell its detractors. Marked by a slowness characteristic of the staging of this anime not like the others, this medium film evokes a poem about the end times. Immersion in this work is to abandon all hope, humanity has been consumed, some scattered soldiers are fighting against whale shadows. And in the middle, a little girl almost mute meets a no more talkative man who gives him an egg. Voluntaryly cryptic, narration will probably unravel those who are used to text explanations, as well as those who love epileptic animation. We're here at the back of the new Chinese standards. Angel egg symbolizes an era suspended at the dawn of the XXIe century, as in Blade Runner. If we adhere to the minimalist proposals, Angel egg convinced by the strength of his desolate universe, a sign of an extinct civilization where the traces of human life are as petrified, even fossilized. Building on its architecture « Georgian », a corridor is a maze, like the state in which the characters are located. Are they purgatory? Are they really human? Unless it is a dream like the dream of the Dreamfish that gave birth to the island Cocolont in 1993 in The Legend of Zelda: Link. Bible myths are being diverted, hope is no longer part of the register of this residual world. A rare symbolic film in the Japanese animation landscape. A (re)discover in the cinema soon.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Death doesn't exist
Canada | Release date : 01/10/2025 | Implementation : Felix Dufour-Laperrière | Competition Contrechamp | Interview to come
Presented in the Contrechamp section, Death doesn't exist the question of direct action. Starting from a starting point of the political commitment of young activities, Felix Dufour-Laperrière embarks the spectator with this armed band ready to commit the irremediable. Far from condemning the use of violence directed against the wealthy who have become parasites of the society that they vampirize, the Canadian director prefers to highlight the internal upheavals of Helen, haunted by her accomplices while she abandons them at the time of the act. Designed as a revolution in the literal sense of the term, the film prints an introspective return on itself, on the struggles to be waged at all costs. Driven by an original artistic direction, the characters are tones in tone as in overprinting on an environment, whose brush strokes are seen in the background, as if the world remained, it, intangible to activism. The shift from one primary colour to another recalls radicality at work. A very literary film in the approach with replicas and monologues that hit. Death doesn't exist offers reflections on the passage of the conditional « I wish » Indicative « I want ». A fashion change today difficult and sign of the contemporary impasse to effectively transform reality.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Allah is not obliged
France | Release date : 2026 | Implementation : Zaven Najjar | Official competition | Interview to come
AIlah is not obliged is the adaptation of the eponymous novel of Ahmadou Kourouma published 25 years ago to the editions of the Seuil and having received the Renaudot prize the same year. Nearly a quarter of a century later, while the subject of child soldiers seems to occupy less Western chiefdoms like public opinion, Zaven Najjar puts the fate of these young children caught up in vice between the gangs of civil wars in West Africa of the 1980s/90s on the forefront. From Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, young Birahima will have to survive, slipping irreparably towards arms. We find the unique style of Zaven Najjar who signed the artistic direction of The Siren by Sepideh Farsi, Iranian director with whom we exchanged on the Iran-Iraq war in 2023 (and whose much expected Put your soul on your hand and walk had shaken the Cannes festival). As with his previous film, one finds an approach at the crossroads of documentary and fiction, Zaven having collected many testimonies from premises which he moreover involved on the musical part of the film. Also carried by a humour peculiar to the well tempered character of Birahima accompanied by his not very conventional marabout uncle, AIlah is not obliged recalls that « The child soldier is the most famous character of the late XXe century ».
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Jinsei
Japan | Release date : NC | Implementation : Ryuya Suzuki | Competition Contrechamp
Jinsei, c’est un peu la rencontre entre Ubu et le Japon. Film réalisé par Ryuya Suzuki, Jinsei est une leçon d’absurde. De la naissance à la mort, chacun vit avec nombre de surnoms, parfois pas toujours joyeux. Jinsei est la fresque de la vie d’un jeune homme qui finit, porté par les évènements, à la tête d’un curieux boys band. Jinsei traverse les angoisses de la société japonaise. Construit en dix actes pour une vie, cet anti-héros, taciturne et animé par le néant, voit sa vie défiler avec un humour noir affirmé. Réalisé en un an et demi à peine, Jinsei est une prouesse pour un premier long-métrage, certes un brin décousu, mais qui se distinguait du reste de la sélection par l’élan absurde de sa proposition délurée.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥
Housenka
Japan | Release date : NC | Implementation : Baku Kinoshita | Official competition
Présenté dans la section Work in progress l’an dernier, Housenka est le premier long métrage de Baku Kinoshiata. Obsédé par les histoires de crimes et de yakuzas, le réalisateur japonais tenait à produire un film dédié à cet univers singulier qui traverse l’histoire japonaise. Contrairement à d’autres films dédiés à la mafia, Housenka prend à contre-pieds nos attentes. On suit ici les souvenirs d’un renégat, ancien yakuza condamné à perpétuité et sur ses derniers jours. Le vieillard Akutsu n’en a plus pour longtemps. Depuis sa cellule, il ressasse à une fleur d’housenka sa vie avec Nana et son fils Kensuke, qu’il a toujours voulu écarter de ce milieu vérolé. Le récit alterne entre séquences derrière les barreaux et moments d’intimité de cette petite famille, où le non-dit et l’ombre des gangs plane en permanence. Porté par une bonne idée de départ, notamment avec les échanges avec cette fleur bavarde, le film manque un peu de folie dans son dénouement. Il n’en reste pas moins une proposition originale et agréable à suivre qui nous fait espérer une sortie en salle pour ce premier film prometteur.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥
Csongor és Tünde
Hongrie | Release date : NC | Implementation : Máli Csaba, Pálfi Zsolt | Annecy présente
Si cette 48e édition du festival d’Annecy battait pavillon hongrois avec nombre de courts-métrages originaux, ce n’est pas Csongor és Tünde qui nous a convaincu. Adaptation d’une pièce de théâtre hongroise de Mihály Vörösmarty de 1830, le film de Máli Csaba et Pálfi Zsolt n’arrive jamais à s’affranchir de son époque. On y suit un jeune prince qui se décide à entreprendre un voyage à la recherche du bonheur, lequel est associé à Tünde, la supposée femme de sa vie qu’il a vue en songe. Bien trop classique dans sa construction, ce conte sans âme se refuse à la modernité ; pis encore, certaines scènes sont particulièrement gênantes, à commencer par les attitudes cringe de certains personnages masculins pour le moins problématiques. Leurs comportements sont présentés comme des gags alors qu’il s’agit d’agressions sexuelles, le tout sans aucun recul critique. Quant à la posture de la princesse, elle est par nature amoureuse d’un prince mono-centré qui n’a aucune qualité à faire valoir, si ce n’est son titre royal : autant dire qu’on tombe dans tous les travers et représentations éculées du sexisme. Sa direction artistique nous a également laissé de marbre. Le côté rondouillard et délavé des personnages ne plaira pas à tout le monde, les modèles étant le plus souvent laids. Si l’on comprend la démarche de patrimoine à l’œuvre, il aurait certainement fallu faire preuve de davantage de profondeur pour moderniser la pièce en question. Reste un film pour les petits… mais avec des représentations douteuses et un humour qui rate quasiment systématiquement son coup. Preuve en est, la salle est restée bien silencieuse pendant la séance. À éviter.
Verdict : 🔥
ChaO
Japan | Release date : NC | Implementation : Yasuhiro Aoki | Official competition
Dans un monde où humains et sirènes coexistent, Stephan, un employé de bureau ordinaire fait la rencontre de Chao, une princesse du royaume des sirènes. ChaO, c’est l’histoire d’une improbable histoire d’amour entre deux êtres que tout oppose. Avec son ton léger, le film ne fait qu’effleurer les thèmes qu’il évoque avec humour. Si certains gags font mouche, on regrettera que le soin apporté aux motivations des personnages n’ait pas été poussé plus loin. Il y avait pourtant matière à amorcer avec plus de finesse cette histoire d’amour catapultée sans qu’on n’y croie vraiment ; cela prive partiellement le spectateur d’adhésion aux émotions. Outre ces choix d’écriture regrettable, la direction artistique est… étrange. On y côtoie des personnages cartonesques avec des modèles réalistes. Contrairement à d’autres films décalés comme La otra forma, film colombien radical, présenté à Annecy en 2022, et où les citoyens mettent leur tête dans des presse pour avoir des têtes rectangulaires, ChaO ne justifie pas clairement ses différences de tons. Pour autant, il faut croire qu’il avait des qualités sincères pour convaincre le jury qui a choisi de le récompenser. Une victoire pour les Japonais, la dernière distinction anniçoise datant d’il y a huit ans avec le sacre de Dans un recoin de ce monde !
Verdict : 🔥🔥
Planètes
Japon / France | Release date : 11/003/2026 | Implementation : Momoko Seto | Official competition | Interview to come
Planètes clôturait en beauté la semaine de la critique à Cannes. Naturellement, on s’attendait à voir le film de Momoko Seto figurer dans la sélection officielle. La réalisatrice du CNRS réussit à produire un film à la croisée des genres. Les enfants des années 90’ qui ont grandi avec Microcosmos, lui aussi présenté à Cannes en 1996, reconnaîtront cette fascination pour toutes les formes du vivant. Si l’on aime lever les yeux vers les étoiles, l’homme moderne oublie trop souvent de regarder ce qui est pourtant à ses pieds. C’est cette démarche à la fois macro et micro que conjugue la réalisatrice franco-japonaise dans ce film d’animation à la croisée du réel et de la fiction. D’un point de départ funeste, la destruction nucléaire de la Terre, des akènes de pissenlit prennent le large ; certains parviennent à quitter l’atmosphère et commence alors une épopée pour coloniser d’autres astres. Ces akènes ont leur propre langage. Ensemble ils communient avec la nature et cherchent sans relâche où trouver refuge. Métaphore des réfugiés et du sens de la vie où l’humanité n’est qu’une goutte d’eau dans l’histoire du monde, Planètes est une invitation à considérer le vivant autrement que par le prisme de l’Homme. Le timelapse fait respirer la terre qui se contracte à l’écran lorsqu’une jeune pousse pionnière émerge du sol. Un film au style hors norme qui rappelle que « la vie trouve toujours son chemin », comme dirait ce bon vieux Ian Malcolm.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Predator : Killer of Killers
USA | Release date : 06/06/2025 | Implementation : Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung | Séance spéciale
Il y a des privilèges qu’on ne se refuse pas. Sorti début juin sur la plateforme Disney+, Predator : Killer of Killers passait sur grand écran au festival d’Annecy. C’est le dernier film de Dan Trachtenberg et Josh Wassung, avec qui on a échangé à l’issue de la séance. Conçu comme une anthologie, le film nous plonge à trois périodes différentes : celle des Vikings, celle du Japon féodal et au cœur de Pearl Harbor. Trois moments clé de l’histoire, prétexte à un déluge de combats féroces entre le monstre culte et les meilleurs guerriers de chaque époque. Diablement bien animé, ce bijou d’animation s’inscrit dans la vague initiée par Spiderman Into The Spiderverse. Après le sympathique reboot Prey, néanmoins plutôt sage, Dan Trachtenberg va bien plus loin en termes de gore. On s’est d’ailleurs demandé comment le studio avait pu faire valider certaines scènes par Disney, peu amène quand il s’agit de parler d’hectolitres d’hémoglobine. Le projet a été en réalité davantage piloté par 20th Century Studios, à qui l’équipe a présenté une scène de démembrement particulièrement graphique en guise de test. Passée comme une lettre à la poste, la séquence a permis au studio d’avoir carte blanche. Avec son scénario qui tient sur un timbre post, Predator : Killer of Killers est avant tout conçu comme un pur film d’action. Derrière le projet, on retrouve aussi des animateurs qui ont officié dans le jeu vidéo et notamment sur la franchise Doom, bien connue pour son côté viscéral. Et ça marche ! Un très bon divertissement qui montre que les créatifs ne sont jamais aussi bons que quand ils sont libres.
Verdict : 🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Awards
Longs métrages
Cristal du long métrage
ARCO
Jury Prize
CHAO
Grand prix Contrechamp
ENDLESS COOKIE
Prix du Jury Contrechamp
GWANG-JANG
Prix Fondation Gan à la diffusion
OLIVIA ET LES TREMBLEMENTS DE TERRE INVISIBLE
Public prices
AMÉLIE ET LA MÉTAPHYSIQUE DES TUBES
Prix Paul Grimault
PLANÈTES
Short films
Cristal du court métrage
LES BOTTES DE LA NUIT
Jury Prize
LES BÊTES
Public prices
LES BOTTES DE LA NUIT
Prix Jean-Luc Xiberras de la première oeuvre
ZWERMEN
Prix Alexeïeff – Parker
SAPPHO
Le reste du palmarès 2025 est accessible Here.
LES BÊTES
Public prices
LES BOTTES DE LA NUIT
Prix Jean-Luc Xiberras de la première oeuvre
ZWERMEN
Prix Alexeïeff – Parker
SAPPHO
Le reste du palmarès 2025 est accessible Here.
[…] Et le NIFFF n’y dérogeait pas lors de sa cérémonie de clôture. Si le festival d’Annecy s’engageait en soutien aux iranien.nes suite à l’attaque éclair d’Israël, le NIFFF tenait quant à lui à rappeler la progression […]