“The Violinist” beat out major competition at Annecy, including “In Waves,” “Viva Carmen” and “Iron Boy,” which had already been big hits at the Cannes Film Festival, to win the biggest festival award in the animation category, Annecy’s feature film “Crystal,” on Saturday.
The Violinists, the story of two young virtuoso violinists in Singapore during and after World War II, certainly had Annecy fans, but most experts thought the best feature award would go to either Iron Boy or Tangles, both of which were being talked about as potential awards season contenders.
Although an outsider, “The Violinist’s” victory seems especially fitting for the Annecy edition, which is not only packed with the strongest competition line-up and major studio announcements and announcements in years, with Warner Bros. Animation, Netflix, and Disney at the forefront, but also highlights the clearly major factors currently reinvigorating animation.
One is Asia and the other is co-production. The Violinist is Singapore’s first feature-length film to be entered in Annecy’s main competition, and, notably, it is also the first Spanish-Italian co-production.
Produced by Singapore’s Robot Playground Media, Spain’s TV ON Producciones and Italy’s Altri Occhi, and directed by Singapore’s Ervin Hung and Spain’s Disney veteran Raul García, “The Violinist” also features rich, painterly 2D (enhanced by 3D in key set scenes), just as the embrace of animation by Hollywood and Europe proved to be one of the major industry stories at Annecy this year. This suggests the influence of anime.
Following Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize win, “Iron Boy” had to be satisfied by winning the Jury Prize at Annecy, as well as the Audience Award and the Gun Foundation Distribution Award.
The enthusiastic reception of “Iron Boy” at Annecy, which marks former Pixar animator (“Wall-E,” “Up”) director Louis Clichy’s embrace of the 2D beloved in his native France, will do nothing to darken the buzz of awards season contention thanks to a storyline in which 11-year-old Christophe grapples with the challenges of age despite a metal body brace he wears to correct his tendency to lean. It’s on the left. There are few things Hollywood loves more than the inspiring battles of individuals against adversity.
“Iron Boy”
Provided by Cannes Film Festival
In the third competition award, one of Spain’s leading writers, Alberto Vázquez’s “Decorado” won the Paul Grimaud Prize for its existential fable about freedom, family and friends. It joins Vazquez’s “Unicorn War” and “Birdboy,” as well as GKids U.S. pickup trucks like the “Decorado.” Produced by Spain’s UniKo, Abano Productions The Glow Animation Studio and Portugal’s Sardinha em Lata, Decorado was hailed by Variety magazine in May as “the most moving animated film of the year.”
“Decorado”
Provided by GKDS
At the closing night awards ceremony in Annecy, which was also attended by Alfonso Cuaron, festival organizers set a new historic record with 19,100 certified attendees.
Annecy’s growth was driven by its acceptance by Hollywood and the nascent animation industry around the world, and by the expansion of feature animation itself. The soul of the festival, and the joy of true animation fans, remains in the short stories. Two-time Academy Award winner Don Hertzfeldt (“Rejects,” “World of Tomorrow”) added to his Sundance Special Jury Prize win for “Paper Trail” in January with his still-coveted Annecy short film “Crystal.”
Paper Trail, a 14-minute high-speed look at someone’s life seen only through a piece of paper, was developed to create the film’s unique look and pace by blending 2D computer animation and animated objects.
Speaking on stage in Annecy, Hertzfeldt said he felt the award was a hard one to win. “I started animation 30 years ago when I was a kid. It was just for fun. It was to make my friends laugh. I always thought of myself as a director who draws pictures. I had never been to Annecy. Maybe I can finally call myself an animator.”
Among other major accolades, Contrechamps, a major sidebar for Annecy’s edgier or newer talent plays, was awarded to Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guige’s French “Blaise,” which Annecy’s artistic director Marcel Jean told Variety, was “a perfect introduction to French absurdist humor that questions the political engagement of young people and the existential crisis of adults.”
The Jury Prize went to Japan’s A New Dawn, a co-production between Japan’s Asmik Ace and France’s Miyu Productions. This work was a hot topic at the Berlin Festival, and foreshadowed the near certainty of future Japanese-French collaborations.
In Annecy’s special awards category, a new award, the Annecy Presents Audience Award, went to Brave Cat, the feature debut of Gabriel Osorio, the director of Academy Award-winning animated short film The Bear Story, Chile’s first Oscar winner. “Brave Cat,” also produced at Punk Robot, the Chilean production house that Osorio runs with producer Pato Excala, began building a reputation at Annecy for packing a similar emotional punch as “The Bear Story.”
At Saturday’s ceremony, the festival also confirmed the dates for the 2027 edition from June 13th to 19th, returning to its traditional mid-month slot, and confirmed that Colombia will be the Annecy Animation Festival’s 2027 honorary country.
A list of this year’s winners can be found below.
feature film
feature film crystal
“The Violinist”, Ervin Hung, Raul Garcia (Throne Inc., Robot Playground Media, TV ON Producciones, Artoli Occhi/Singapore, Spain, Italy)
Jury award
“Iron Boy” Louis Clichy (Eddie Cinema, Beside Productions/France, Belgium)
Paul Grimaud Award
“Decorado”, Alberto Vazquez (UniKo, Abano Productions The Glow Animation Studio, Sardinia M Rata/Spain, Portugal)
Cancer Foundation Distribution Award
“Iron Boy”
audience award
“Iron Boy”
Characteristics of Contre Champ
Grand Prix
“Blaze” Dimitri Planchon & Jean-Paul Guige (KG Productions/France)
Jury award
“A New Dawn” (Asmik Ace, Miyu Productions/Japan, France)
short film
short film crystal
“Paper Trail” Don Hertzfeldt (USA)
Jury award
“God is shy” Jocelyn Charles (France)
Alexeyev – Parker Prize
“My Belyaching Skin” Etienne Bonnet (Girel Productions, France)
No Trespassing Award
“Core Dump”, Alona Rodeh (Germany)
Jean-Luc Sciberras Award (Best First Film)
“Please” Anna Mantsaris (Apparat Filmproduktion, Passion Paris Production, Arte, Film i Väst, SVT, Mikrofilm AS, Kuli Film, YLE, Böhle Studio/Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland)
audience award
“God is shy”
Special Award Winner
SACEM Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Best Short Film
“God is shy” Jocelyn Charles (Reminiscence/France)
SACEM Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Best Feature Film
“The Violinist”, Ervin Hung, Raul Garcia (Throne Inc., Robot Playground Media, TV ON Producciones, Artoli Occhi/Singapore, Spain, Italy)
Annecy Presents Audience Award
“Brave Cat” Gabriel Osorio (Punk Robot/Chile)
Canal+ Junior Jury Award
“Piccolo Piccolo” Marta Gennari (Gebeka Films, Folimage, Reginald de Guillebon, Nadasdy Film/France, Switzerland)
Young Audience Award
“Into the Forest” Antonin Niklas (Mirosfilm SA/Switzerland)
Andre Martin Award (Best French Short Film)
“Hold It Together” Juan Sissoko (Compass Films, Komawé, Artémis Productions – Artébis Entertainment/Iceland, France, Belgium)
ARTE Award, European Short Film Award
“Ukauka” Henri Veermäe (Grafik/Estonia)
Festival Connection Award for Immersive Works
“Voooooo—Peeeeee—” Hyeunjoo Woo, Jiyun Park (Ubac Studio/Korea)
Winner of the Vimeo Staff Pick Award for Best Short Film
“Creation” Béla Kringl (Béla Kringl/Hungary)
Warner Brothers Animation Award Graduation Production Award
“12 Inch Pianist” Lucas Ansell (Rhode Island School of Design/USA)
midnight short award
“Eccloción” Luis Morillo (Luis Morillo, Edwin Gautreu Santana, Claudio Rubérez, Miguel Cabañas, Jaime Cano, Deisi Cruz/Dominican Republic, Spain)
Annecy City Award
“Today is Saturday” Alice Eça Guimarães (Animais AVPL, La Clairière Ouest, Studio Kimchi, Os Filmes do Pinguim/Portugal, France, Spain)
Tit WTF Award
“You Are Not Part of the Cake” Ting Jui Chen (Royal College of Art/Taiwan, UK)
Great Tit WTF Judges Special Award
“I Have a” Rory Waudbe Tolley (Rory Waudbe Tolley/UK)
