Annecy Festival Announces 2012 Selections & Highlights

Announcement from The Annecy Festival:

The Annecy Festival announced the official selections for the 2012 edition of the festival, comprised of 49 short films, 55 graduation films, and 60 TV and commissioned films, including 21 TV series, two TV specials and 37 commissioned films. 40 short films were also selected outside of competition.

“This year, there was an infinite richness to be found in the films sent in, both in the techniques used and the topics that ranged from the lightest to the most serious,” commented Annecy 2012 artistic director Serge Bromberg. “Of the 2,374 films submitted – not including feature films – (387 more than last year), we were able to take a trip around the world of animation and its messages, the pleasures of cinema and the incredible talent expressed therein. We laughed, we cried, and we had a lot of doubts as choosing was very difficult. It’s this quality, this diversity and this infinite richness that is the salt of a Festival like our own. Many thanks to the creators and animators for this wonderful gift.”

The complete short film selection can be found at http://www.annecy.org/edition-2012/festival/selection-officielle [1]

The feature film selection will be revealed at the Annecy Festival 2012 press conference in Paris on April 24.

Guest country: Ireland
The 52nd edition of the Annecy Festival will also honor Ireland with a guest country panorama. Over the past few years, Ireland has developed some highly original productions and great artistic successes with a very distinctive cultural identity, creating a special relationship with other major European countries in animation.

Programs will include The Depository by Andrew Kavanagh, Butterfly by Glen Marshal and The Polish Language by Alice Lyons. There will also be episodes from TV series like Fluffy Gardens (Jason Tammemagi) and Skunk Fu! (Paul Young/Cartoon Saloon), as well as graduation films such as Blip by Sean Mullen and Ben Harper, or Fluffy Mc Cloud by Conor Finnegan and Donald Taylor Black.

The Annecy 2012 Poster Revealed

Marion Franck, the creative artist behind the official Annecy 2012 poster, believes that animation is a type of cinematic process that recreates the illusion of movement and life from drawings and still images. Images, light and time are indispensable elements for animation, which takes over from nature by bringing new and imaginary creatures to life. To express these ideas, Franck uses phosphorescent shapes to highlight the various parts of the body, their luminosity outlining a silhouette that would normally remain hidden in darkness. When lit, the graphic shapes reveal a mysterious and enticing creature rising from the depths of a lake. The town of Annecy is also given a nod with the background of the poster, which is made up of photos of the lake and surrounding scenery.

Annecy 2012 will be held June 4-9.  More information can be found at http://annecy.org [2].