Forced this year to reinvent itself online as a result of the ongoing health crisis (read our news), the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (running 15 - 30 June) - the biggest event of its kind - has unveiled a tantalising selection of 20 titles for its two feature film competitions, The Official and Contrechamp.

Out of the 76 original candidates, artistic director Marcel Jean has chosen ten titles which will battle it out for The Official’s 2020 Cristal. Shining bright among them is Little Vampire [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by France’s Joann Sfar, who already triumphed in Annecy in 2011 with The Rabbi’s Cat [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]. The filmmaker’s new opus was produced by Aton Soumache on behalf of The Magical Society (a company born out of Mediawan firm ON Kids & Family’s acquisition of a majority stake in Nice Pictures last year, the latter being the company of Joann Sfar which controlled Autochenille, the initiator of the project) and co-produced by France 3 Cinéma, Story, Belgian firm Panache Productions and StudioCanal, who are steering international sales and will distribute the film in France on 21 October.

Another prominent French filmmaker will also be included in The Official: Rémi Chayé, with Calamity: A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Henri Magalon
scheda film]. Presented with the Audience Award in Annecy 2015 for Long Way North [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], the director’s new film was produced by the Parisian firm Maybe Movies and co-produced by Denmark’s Nørlum. It’s release in France, courtesy of Gebeka Films, is slated for 14 October, with international sales in the hands of Indie Sales.

Likewise in the running for the 2020 Cristal is Kill It and Leave this Town [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mariusz Wilczyński
scheda film] by Polish director Mariusz Willczynski, a film unveiled in the Berlinale’s Encounters line-up, and Bigfoot Family [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ben Stassen
scheda film], the new opus by Belgians Ben Stassen and Jérémie Degruson, following on from Bigfoot Junior [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ben Stassen
scheda film] and The House of Magic [+leggi anche:
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making of
scheda film] (the former also boasting works such as Fly Me to the Moon [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] and Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] in his back-catalogue). Produced by nWave Pictures, the feature film is sold by Charades.

Rounding off the Official Competition are two feature films from Japan, one from Russia, one from Chile, one from Mauritius and one hailing from Egypt.

In terms of the Contrechamp Competition, three feature films stand tall among the ten selected participants: Old Man - The Movie [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by the Estonian duo Mikk Mägi and Oskar Lehemaa, My Favorite War [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen
scheda film] by Latvia’s Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen (a film co-produced by Norway) and Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dalibor Baric
scheda film] by Croatia’s Dalibor Baric.

For the record, not all the feature films competing in this year’s very special edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival will be available online without restriction, dependent as this is on the rights negotiated for different territories.

In addition to the busy schedule above, the festival will also be organising a competition consisting of seven VR works, while the 2020 Official Selection further includes 79 shorts, 44 graduate films, 21 TV films and 35 commissioned films. And that’s without forgetting the unmissable professional crossroads that is the International Animated Film Market - Mifa which is set to unfold online (news).

The films selected within the Feature Films line-up are as follows:

The Official Competition

Little Vampire [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Joann Sfar (France)
Calamity: A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Henri Magalon
scheda film] - Rémi Chayé (France/Denmark)
Kill It and Leave this Town [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Mariusz Wilczyński
scheda film] - Mariusz Willczynski (Poland)
Bigfoot Family [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ben Stassen
scheda film] - Ben Stassen, Jérémie Degruson (Belgium/France)
The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks - Andrey Khrzhanovsky (Russia)
Ginger's Tale - Konstantin Scherkin (Russia)
Jungle Beat: The Movie - Brent Dawes (Mauritius)
Lupin III The First - Takashi Yamazaki (Japan)
7 Days War – Yuta Murano (Japan)
Nahuel and the Magic Book - German Acuña (Chile)

Contrechamp Competition

Old Man - The Movie [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Mikk Mägi & Oskar Lehemaa (Estonia)
My Favorite War [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen
scheda film] - Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen (Latvia/Norway)
Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dalibor Baric
scheda film] - Dalibor Baric (Croatia)
On Gaku: Our Sound! - Kenji Iwaisawa (Japan)
Lava - Ayar Blasco (Argentina)
Beauty Water - Kyung-hun Cho (South Korea)
The Shaman Sorceress - Jae-huun Ahn (South Korea)
The Legend of Hei - Ping Zhang (China)
True North - Eiji Han Shimizu (Japan/Indonesia)
The Knight and the Princess - Bashir El Deek & Ibrahim Mousa (Saudi Arabia/Egypt)