Annecy Animation Festival
Long time no writting but here I am!!
Last week Annecy Animation Festival happened. It was an amazing and inspiring expirience which I will remember for my life.
I'd like to tell you about it and hopefully mesmerize you my reader and maybe you'll want to visit it too.
Annecy is a city in the East of France. It is located close to Switzerland, where you find Geneva airport, which makes the traveling quick and easy. Even though to France, me and my friends traveled by buss from Denmark for about 22 hours, it was a cozy but also tiring trip for some of us... so don't do this if you don't like flat butts.
But all the tiredness of the trip flushed away when we saw this *>*, the amazing landscape of the city, the air, the warmth and the exitement of the week ahead.
The Annecy animation festival takes place from 1960 and it showcases animation projects from all over the world, in different styles and techniques. You can also see documentaries about artists, like I saw one about Bruno Bozzetto. He is an italian animator, one of the master of European animation. In the documentary I've learned about his hometown, studio and family, now I know he has 2 dogs and a big sheep, who acts like a dog...I think her name was Lola. Bruno is a very sweet man and what I like about him is the stories he tells, which are simple and authentic. You can see what I mean with this short called Grasshoppers:
At Annecy you also watch movies which haven't premiered yet anywhere, isn't that awesome? So here comes Mutafukaz, a feature movie made in France and Japan. Generally, I have liked the story and the visuals but most of all I enjoyed the editing of the action scenes. The timing of gags was great and entertaining to watch. I liked that such a miserable environment Angelino lives in, turned out so light because they tried to keep the comedy within drama. It made me have a brighter look at my hometown and try live my life with irony for things I don't like or I dissagree with.
But what I haven't liked about it? Probably the way they decided to implement comic feeling to the movie. All the text and funny voice over was pulling me back from the story, making me wake up to the cinema seat, which is a shame since the overall mood was great. I didn't like that at one point in the movie you had to know the connection of secondary characters from the actual comic story. In the movie it wasn't clear who the helping characters are and what is their motivation to help.
I recommend seeing this movie if you like things like Aachi and Ssipak, Tekkonkinkreet, Triplets of belleville.
Ahhh, finally the Big Bad Fox!! It is a french production, directed by Patrick Imbert and Benjamin Renner, the creators of Ernest and Celestine. I loved this so much. It was a collection of 2 short stories and one longer story. Everything about this movie made me like it. The designs are very appealing and easy to read. It was predictable sometimes but the way they pulled the emotions out of a simple fairytale made it too original. I think this is because they made the character individuals and it was clear who was who. The acting of the characters just made my day, you could feel how they act for the theater but at the same time you're getting absorbed in the story at the point of becoming one of the forest animals.
I recommend this movie to everybody!
The most enjoyable part of the festival was of course the bouding with my friends and colleagues. I am really thankfull I had this time to get to know them better. I've made a great buddy too, who is gone to America my next study year, but we'll meet at work one day :D
The icecream was great too btw, and the beer was nice and I could drink more than one and still feel like standing straight.
I loved the people there, mostly the elderly french, because they were more open to disscusion and they enjoyed speaking English with me.
Last week Annecy Animation Festival happened. It was an amazing and inspiring expirience which I will remember for my life.
I'd like to tell you about it and hopefully mesmerize you my reader and maybe you'll want to visit it too.
Annecy is a city in the East of France. It is located close to Switzerland, where you find Geneva airport, which makes the traveling quick and easy. Even though to France, me and my friends traveled by buss from Denmark for about 22 hours, it was a cozy but also tiring trip for some of us... so don't do this if you don't like flat butts.
At Annecy you also watch movies which haven't premiered yet anywhere, isn't that awesome? So here comes Mutafukaz, a feature movie made in France and Japan. Generally, I have liked the story and the visuals but most of all I enjoyed the editing of the action scenes. The timing of gags was great and entertaining to watch. I liked that such a miserable environment Angelino lives in, turned out so light because they tried to keep the comedy within drama. It made me have a brighter look at my hometown and try live my life with irony for things I don't like or I dissagree with.
But what I haven't liked about it? Probably the way they decided to implement comic feeling to the movie. All the text and funny voice over was pulling me back from the story, making me wake up to the cinema seat, which is a shame since the overall mood was great. I didn't like that at one point in the movie you had to know the connection of secondary characters from the actual comic story. In the movie it wasn't clear who the helping characters are and what is their motivation to help.
I recommend seeing this movie if you like things like Aachi and Ssipak, Tekkonkinkreet, Triplets of belleville.
Ahh, what should I tell you about Lu over the wall. It is a sweet and heartwarming feature. It was made in Japan by the director Masaaki Yuasa. I haven't watched anything made by him before, but I can tell he is a young and romantic soul since the movie was the same. Overall the movie made me laugh and my heart was swinged by buterflies and drowned in cinamamon cupcakes because, damn, that was too sweet even for me.
I really liked the character Lu, she was a pleasure to see on the screen. Though I'm glad they haven't showed her too much.
Things, in my opinion, which haven't worked that well are editing, not all of it, but there where changes of mood in scenes which in my gutt felt abrupt or not at their place. The other thing was the Kai's friends, they felt very stereotipical without an individual touch, considering the 107 min movie. I felt that Lu's dad could have been presented more, since I find him very interesting and mestirious, like one of the Ghibli's characters.
I recommend seeing this movie when a bit unmoody, it will brighten your day, but don't watch it if you don't like sugar ^^.
I recommend this movie to everybody!
Besides the Festival there is also MIFA. The best place to look for a job, recommendation, feedback, funding if you have a project and generally looking for connections. I have managed to get a precious feedback on my showreel from Illumination McGuff and also have a insight about Canadian animation studios. For next year I got inspired to visit Annecy again but using the opportunity to showcase a short movie or a pitch for a TV-show I can develop.
The icecream was great too btw, and the beer was nice and I could drink more than one and still feel like standing straight.
I loved the people there, mostly the elderly french, because they were more open to disscusion and they enjoyed speaking English with me.
With love a purple frog.
More pics and vids from the festival:
SOme airplane messiness :)
2 pics by August Poul Niclasen
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