Swiss animation takes centre stage at Annecy festival
Switzerland will be well represented at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with six films selected for the event which runs from June 21 to 27.
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Swiss animation takes centre stage at Annecy festival
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Several filmmakers from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, such as Georges Schwizgebel, Marcel Barelli and Gilles Jobin, will be in attendance.
Geneva-based director Georges Schwizgebel (“the grand master of Swiss animated cinema”, according to Christian Gasser, journalist, curator and lecturer in animated film at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts) will present his latest film, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The same section will host the world premiere of Cartoon Physics, a co-production between France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, supported on the Swiss side by Hélium Films (Geneva).
The stop-motion film by the American duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter adapts a poem by Nick Flynn and explores, through the mother-daughter relationship, the fragility of family ties and memory, according to the Swiss Films website.
More
Cartoons – capturing freedom of expression
Film made in Lausanne
In the Young Audience section, three Swiss short films have been selected. Lausanne-based Antonin Niclass presents Vers la forêt, a stop-motion film set in an animation studio where puppets come to life.
The film, produced by Milos Films, was made in Lausanne. Zoltán Horváth from Geneva directs Cosmonaute, an animated fiction film centred on an intimate space journey, whilst the short film by German director Lena von Döhren, based in Lucerne, Bats & Bugs, selected for the latest Berlinale, rounds off the selection.
In the Off-Limits section, dedicated to experimental forms, the graduation film Symbionts by Swiss-based Dutch director Quirijn Dees, a graduate of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Design Film Art, offers a sensory reflection on the symbiotic relationships between the body and the environment.
The festival also highlights several projects in development. Ogresse, a feature-length animated film inspired by folktales and oral narratives, is led by Belgian director Lia Bertels and American singer-songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant. The co-production involves Switzerland via Hélium Films (Geneva).
Seraphine, by French director Sarah Van Den Boom, also features a Swiss production company, Nadasdy Film (Geneva). The film offers an intimate fable centred on memory and loss. The immersive project Hide & Seek by Geneva-based Swiss director Fabienne Giezendanner, meanwhile, explores the boundaries between video games and interactive cinema.
Crossroads of dance and digital arts
At the professional market, the Mifa Pitches will showcase two further Swiss projects: Hermien by Ticino-based director Marcel Barelli, known for his socially engaged films exploring the relationship between humans and nature, and Marta Becket’s Death Valley by Geneva-based choreographer Gilles Jobin, an immersive project at the crossroads of dance and digital arts.
Swiss Films will be taking part in the Francophone Co-production Lunch. Geneva-based producer Sereina Gabathuler (Roundabout Film) will present Celina Escher’s project Amada Libertad, an animated documentary centred on a woman facing imprisonment and separation from her family.
Producer Clémence Pun (Hélium Films, Geneva) will present Au revoir blaireau, a television project aimed at young audiences.
Adapted from French with AI/mga
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.