AWN publishers Ron Diamond (far left) and Dan Sarto (far right) with the young filmmakers behind the award-winning short, Overtime.

The renegade screening was organized and promoted primarily by Pat Smith, Signe Baumane and Bill Plympton. The films were projected by Jonas Reaber while live the “Improper boys provided music” and creators like John Dilworth cried into his beers. Not really — while I did not make it to the event, all reported it was a good gathering, where even festival artistic director Serge Bromberg was invited.

Artistic director Bromberg hosted the closing awards ceremony, sporting a Canadian Mounties uniform (in honor of the festival’s tribute to Canadian animation) that called the winners to assemble on the snow-covered stage, seated on benches during the awarding of the trophies.

Room for improvements? Straighten out the bugs in the onsite ticket system. Many people were sent to the pressroom to use the computer there that needed to be reserved for the many journalists reporting from the event. Make more wireless areas for people to use their laptops (pass this on to the hotels as well). At one point, when the wireless connection would not work in the pressroom we were told it was because it was “too bright” outside. (OK, I’ve heard of sun flares affecting the Internet but…)

Think about mixing student and professional films, this would raise the bar, in most cases, of late, to the professionals. It would be nice if the big formal parties had more of a mixer element to them, besides proving ample space and nice food and overwhelmed bartenders. Some of the competitors never received their invites to the VIP gatherings at the end of the lake. Once more, there were fewer sponsored parties by exhibitors and organizations, so more people went back to their hotels earlier to get in from the climatic and sometimes social cold.

The 29th Annecy Festival was still enlightening, entertaining and enriching. It takes one out of one’s local and national identity and increases one’s appreciation for animators and animation around the world.

An amazing story was the similarities about the two duos of young filmmakers competing for Best Feature Film (The District! and Terkel in Trouble), knocking out incredibly entertaining films with little time and budget. I will delve into their stories, as well as a few other film observations in Part 2 of my second take on the Annecy Festival.

Sarah Baisley is the editor-in-chief of Animation World Network.