Portugal will be the featured country at the next edition of the Annecy Animated Film Festival, one of the most important for this cinematographic genre, which will take place between June 9 and 15, 2024, it was announced today.
The announcement was made today, the last day of this year’s edition, by Portuguese director Regina Pessoa, in a video shown to the festival’s audience and posted on the official YouTube account.
The Annecy festival’s “tribute to Portuguese animation” is announced in the year that two feature-length animated films that were screened at the French event in 2022 premiered in Portuguese cinemas: “Nayola”, by José Miguel Ribeiro, and “Os demónios do meu avô”, by Nuno Beato.
Portuguese animation cinema has been recognized all over the world in the last few years.
This year, “Ice Merchants,” an animation by João Gonzalez that interweaves 2D drawing and music, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
The film, which had its world premiere in 2022 at the Critics’ Week in Cannes, France, where it won an award, has won several other awards in the context of festivals, including Annie, considered the Oscars of animation, for best short film, and the Audience Award in the same category at the International Animated Film Festival – Anima, in Brussels.
In 2020, also the film “Tio Tomás, A Contabilidade dos Dias”, by Portuguese director Regina Pessoa, was distinguished in the Annie Awards.
These are just a few examples of Portuguese animated films that have been present and won awards at various festivals.
The Annecy animation film festival, whose edition ends today, had several Portuguese productions in competition.
In the official competition of short films was “Catisfaction”, produced and directed by André Almeida, made in 3D, without dialogues, between the real and the oneiric, about a man and his cat.
In the same competition were two Portuguese co-productions by Cola Animation, from Bruno Caetano: “L’Ombre des papillons”, by Sofia El Khyari, a drawing on paper, and “Telsche”, by Sophie Colfer and Ala Nunu.
In the “Off Limits” film competition was “Motus”, an experimental stop motion short by Nelson Fernandes, while in the television film competition was director José Pedro Cavalheiro with “Mr. Passenger”, a children’s series, scripted by Regina Guimarães and produced by Ocidental Filmes.
The film festival, which is one of the most important for animation cinema, was this year dedicated to Mexico.
