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Annecy Festival 2021 to Spotlight African Animation

May 24, 2021

Through the course of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s 60-year history, 47 African films have been in the Official Selection. But animation is currently booming on the African continent, and the 2021 programming will reflect this.

Among the 18 jury members who will have the task of determining the official prizes, Annecy will welcome the writer and professor Mohamed Ghazala (Egypt) and Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya, an artist from Kenya.

The City of Annecy Award will be awarded by the Perspective Jury, consisting of three residents from the city of Dori, in Burkina Faso – Moustafa Kabore, cultural entrepreneur; Soujoude Wafa Naami, architecture student; and Seidou Samba Toure, director. For this award, the Annecy Festival is collaborating with the Mayors of Annecy and Dori, as well as the Échanges Sahel association, created as part of the city twinning scheme between Annecy-le-Vieux and Dori, and whose aim is to conduct local development actions in this region.

The Junior Jury comprises 8 children who will be rewarding a Short Film, a Graduation Film and also the Junior Jury CANAL+ Award. There will be four youngsters from Burkina Faso, Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Morocco, who will be side-by-side four local youngsters from Annecy’s AAA association.

A quick glimpse at the programme

  • Discover the film L’Ambouba by the director Nadia Raïs, along with a dozen productions from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
  • Catch the best of Fupitoons Festival – from the travelling festival aimed at young audiences and launched by the African Animation Network (Nick Wilson and Comfort Arthur). Check out 20 films from 8 countries.
  • Annecy 2021 will honour one of the greatest African animation artists, William Kentridge, through 9 of his short films.
  • The festival will show Lady Buckit & the Motley Mopsters, a Nigerian feature film by Adebisi Adetayo (2020) about a precocious little girl who finds herself in an unfamiliar place. She meets a group of strange characters who change the course of her destiny.
  • The programme will include a selection, curated by Jean-Baptiste Garnero (Research Fellow for promoting collections at the CNC), of several African films that have been conserved or restored by the CNC Archives: three Egyptian short films, as well as Bukra Fil Mish-Mish, a documentary by Tal Michael about the Frenkel brothers, pioneers of African animation.

Mifa

In all its richness and diversity, African animation will also take a presiding place at the Mifa 2021.

A glimpse at the 2021 Mifa programme

  • Presentation of African projects: 21 projects from across the continent (Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Egypt, etc. will be pitched) plus 1 comic book project for adaptation.
  • A conference will take place under the theme “Understand African Animation: Collaboration at the Core of Today and Tomorrow’s Strategies”
  • An African Focus to understand and learn about the various distribution opportunities within the continent and internationally, and to consider new alternatives.
  • In partnership with Unity, the Mifa Campus will be organised on Friday, 18th June, and will also be giving African animation pride of place.
  • Meetings with publishers, broadcasters, distributors, and festival programmers from the continent

For more information visit the festival website here.

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