Passion Pictures Melbourne reflects on this year’s Annecy Animation Festival
Each year, thousands of guests descend on the picturesque town of Annecy to enjoy the work of the newest, best and brightest in the animation world. Due to Covid-19 this year’s Annecy Animation Festival moved online and here, the team at Passion Pictures Melbourne reflect on their festival highlights…
Although there is much to be gloomy about right now, the move online of this year’s Annecy Animation Festival has had all of us at Passion Pics Melbourne pretty chuffed (except those who would ordinarily be up to their eyeballs in cheese, admiring Annecy’s spring-kissed lake ). We were thrilled (and yet modestly unsurprised) to have some of our own amongst the talented coterie; director Robert Wallace (Parallel Teeth)’s raucously energetic campaign to end child marriage, Vow ‘Rebellion’, was selected for Commissioned Films alongside Jack Antoine Charlot’s masterpiece of motion capture ‘The Rest of My Days’, which craftily blurs the lines between the real and the virtual.
A few of the team rated their 2020 festival faves.
Says Adrian Oostergetel, head of CG, Passion Pictures: “I loved diving into the Young Audiences category this year. There were some impressive narratives – and it was great to be able to enjoy the films with my kids while working from home! The standout for me, by quite a stretch, was ‘Archie’, from BAFTA-winning director Ainslie Henderson. Gorgeous use of stop-motion, a beautiful, moving score – this one tugged at the heartstrings. Great storytelling really can surpass even the most impressive use of technology.”
Says Megan Plane, junior producer, Passion Pictures: “I was captivated by director Camila Kater’s mixed-media short film, ‘Carne’. Relating the personal experiences of five different women, she uses different techniques (stop-motion, 2D, claymation, amongst others) to evoke each individual tale, and blends them seamlessly. A really powerful conversation about women and their bodies told across different life stages.”
Says Karlene van Opdorp, producer, Passion Pictured: “My pick is ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, from directors Matija Pisacic And Tvrtko Raspolic. A macabre tale, told in beautifully nuanced 2D animation. The carefully crafted illustrations, dark humour and clever scene transitions made this such a pleasure to watch.”