10 Trends That Dominated Annecy 2024: Buzz Titles, Adult Animation and the Festival’s Increasing Importance to Hollywood
variety.comAnnecy Animation Festival, the most important eight days of the year for the global animation industry, wraps up tonight, so we’re looking back at 10 themes that dominated the dialogue around this year’s event.
In interviews held before this year’s festival, several representatives from Hollywood studios, speaking on background, told us that Annecy has now replaced Comic-Con as their most important promotional event of the year for animation.
During a backstage interview with Variety at a “Transformers: One” panel, festival artistic director Marcel Jean explained that building that reputation wasn’t a quick or easy process. “It’s a long-term work to convince the studios that Annecy is a place to be for them,” he said. “I think we are building a very strong relationship with Paramount, and it’s the same with most of the studios now.” Paramount and Nickelodeon boss Ramsey Naito backed Jean’s claim, arguing that Annecy has become “a place where all the majors can come and present their wares like we’re doing today with ‘Transformers One.’ It’s just an incredible blend of independent and big animation.” As Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” stands poised to score the second largest opening weekend for an animated film ever (third if we count “The Lion King” – 2019), it’s worth noting the increasing importance of Annecy in building up hype for theatrically released animated films.
Three sequels likely to contend for highest grossing release of 2024 – “Inside Out 2,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Moana 2” – featured at this year’s festival and will look to capitalize on audience hype.
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