Annecy wraps up a unique 60th edition

Il Annecy International Animated Film Festival celebrated its 60th anniversary with a unique edition last week. Passion, creativity, discussions, new projects, meetings and much more were on display during the first major international cultural event to welcome the public in France since the start of the pandemic: Annecy 2021 marked the return of events on site and rocked the city to the rhythm of its hybrid live / online festival.

The organizers point out that the event is a reflection of the global animation industry, which has adapted to the exceptional circumstances of the global health crisis "with an agility that has allowed both talent and industry to continue pursuing their own. current activities and projects ". The Annecy Festival saw a historic number of feature films in competition this year, and emerging professionals and talent were eager to reconnect with their peers and discover new partners through meetings at the Festival and MIFA.

Annecy 2021 in numbers:

• Quasi 8.500 badge holder (2.336 for the MIFA, 6.128 for the Festival), who participated 50-50 on site and online.
• 240 on-site screenings
• 74 Festivals + events; including lectures (30), work in progress (16), Studio Focuses (13), demos (six), making-of (four), masterclasses (two), previews (two) and keynote speeches.
• 80 MIFA events online; pitch session (20), recruiter talk (eight), focus session (11), Meet The… events (46) and press conferences (four)
• 12.897 hours of online viewing
• 105 replays until 31 December 2021 (WIP, Pitches, etc. available to members until 31 December 2021; selected programs with films shot also accessible to MIFA members until 31 December).

Women advancing in Annecy: The 2021 event also showed progress on the Festival's journey towards gender equality. Over the past 60 years, the number of films directed by women in the Official Selection has risen from 9% to almost 45%. For the first time in the history of the Festival, two directors have won in the feature film category. The juries have achieved gender parity this year and the meeting schedules have achieved near perfect parity (Conferences: 50% female speakers; Masterclass: 50%; WIP: 42%). In Mifa Pitch, 22 of the 37 selected projects were directed or co-directed by women.

The next edition will be held June-13 18 2022, with a focus on Swiss animation.