Annecy Opens on Note of Artistic Defiance as Disney Premieres Centenary Short ‘Once Upon a Studio’
Ben Croll Three days after a barbarous playground attack left the lakeside town in grief and shock, and in an amphitheater facing the public park where the tragedy occurred, the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival inaugurated this year’s edition with a show of solidarity and communal defiance. “In response to barbarity, this festival will hold up creativity and artistic perspective,” said event organizer Dominique Puthod as he addressed the lively crowd. “You will bring color and wonder to the eyes of young and old alike, on bruised and battered paper, as a tribute to life.” “The best response to this tragedy is to live even more forcefully and more intensely,” added Annecy mayor François Astorg. “With this conviction art and culture celebrates life, and enables us to change the world to make it a better place.”