Annecy Download #1
Mon, Jun 15th 2009, 12:16
It's 11.30am on Monday and I'm still experiencing mild anti-climatic feelings from four days in Annecy. It's like that feeling you get after a great holiday when you can't quite believe you're back home and working. Which is exactly what I'm doing (or technically avoiding by writing this blog entry).
We've never been to the animation festival and conference in Annecy before, but it's easy to see why people go back year after year. The setting is beautiful, the comaraderie is excellent, the Grande Salle cinema in the Bonlieu building has a screen larger than Scotland and seats nine million people... the list goes on.
We attended the screening of our own short film 'Codswallop' on the Wednesday night in the aforementioned Grande Salle. It seemed to go down very well, with plenty of clapping, whooping and thankfully a total lack of paper aeroplanes being hurled at the screen while it played. We did the whole 'get up and bow' thing at the end also, which was fun in front of so many people.
The programme also featured seven other shorts including Slavar, a powerful animation about modern slavery in Sudan, which went on to win the big short film prize 'The Annecy Cristal'. It was one of those films that makes you so angry about the way some people are treated by others, that you think perhaps everyone in the world should just stop what they're doing, get together, sort the problem out, and then get back to work. If only it worked like that!
The programme also featured Cordell Barker's Runaway, a great story about a runaway train and the interactions of the different class of passengers. It had a real Chuck Jones feel and went on to win a Jury's Special Award.
As well as screenings, conferences, and meetings there were also a few exhibitions. Greg and I only got to see one which was from the Panique au Village feature. We're both big fans of A Town Called Panic (UK name) and hopefully the film will get some distribution over in the UK.
I didn't get to see too many screenings with all the hobnobbing and meetings, but I'm pleased to say I did manage to see Australian feature Mary and Max (which jointly won Cristal for best feature at the festival with Coraline). Mary and Max is a sad but heartwarming tale about two lonely penpals. It's from Adam Elliot, writer and director of Harvie Krumpet. Thanks to Sam McCarthy from Open Book who donated her ticket to me (the screening was a sell out).
On Thursday morning we went back to the Bonlieu to be interviewed by festival director Serge Bromberg who was great. He didn't pull his punches in his questions. I hate nothing more than an obsequious interviewer, and he was definitely not that. Also anyone called Serge is great in my book.
I will write more tomorrow about some of the wonderful persons that we met while out there... otherwise this blog entry will become a novel.
