Annecy festival is a festival that brings the biggest names in the animation industry together to celebrate creativity, different ideas, and production styles.
Founded in 1983, the event has since inspired and thrilled the whole world with the rhythm of animation by highlighting this sector’s dynamism and creative richness.
The international film festival is a week-long event that is sub-categorized into three main events, they are:
- Programming
- Exploration
- Inspiration
Witnessing the Annecy film festival should be a goal for every African studio because of all the opportunities it offers attendees. We can agree that animation in Africa is still far behind compared to our counterparts in the western world. Events like the Annecy festival allow Africans to meet with top animation creators to get exposure and enlightenment.
Our creative director Mr. Richard Oboh who attended the festival gained so much listening to the different speakers who were present at the event, and the most remarkable to him was the session with Jennifer Lee from Disney.
Jennifer Lee is the chief creative director, American screenwriter, and film director of Walt Disney Animation Studios. She is best known as the writer and director of Frozen and its sequel Frozen II, the former of which earned her an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Some of the key points she made were:
- Leave your ego at the door; ego can be the enemy.
- Don’t try to make the idea or story your own. Instead, ask how “can we make this better”?
- The challenge isn’t talent but access.
- Whatever you know today, you can learn more tomorrow
- Give in to the art.
To further buttress her point about talent and access, she told a story about the movie ” Frozen ” screenwriting. She stated how most of the input was made by the male actors. The scene where Elsa had to kiss the prince was a bit controversial, and she asked the male writers, who agreed that they should go ahead with the kiss scene. Rather than going with their suggestion, she took it to the women who suggested the opposite, gave reasons, and chose to adopt their recommendation.
This shows that most times, it may seem like there isn’t enough talent in the room because access hasn’t been given to those with the talent. Diversity and inclusion should be considered in workplaces; gender, race, and tribe inclusion can help solve lack of talent issues.
There was also an exposition on Imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. People who suffer imposter syndrome wonder if they’re deserving of accolades.
There were also some beautiful sessions with speakers from other top studios like Epic Games, makers of Unreal Engine, and Xilam Animation, a French production company that specializes in animated television series and feature films. We also had someone from Triggerfish, a computer animation film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, and Galway, Ireland. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia, Khumba, and Seal Team, as well as the work they have done on television specials created for UK producers Magic Light Pictures. Everyone who spoke was fascinating and left gems that left us in awe.
Other notable conversations were around setting strategies and the importance of developing a clear long-term strategy before approaching investment.
“Your decision should be defined by your long-term strategy”, not by short-time position.
The final part of the festival is the awards. “The event was packed with many activities which kept us busy, and we couldn’t follow the award-giving sessions. It was a great experience indeed,” Mr. Richard stated.
Did you learn a thing or two from this post? As an artist, will you like to attend Annecy next year?
Check out our next post for more updates about the festival and also follow us on social media to get more updates about every activity we are involved in, they have some benefits and you do not want to miss out on any.