Fantastic Mr Fox claims top prize at Annecy animation festival

The film also received the audience award at the closing ceremony on Saturday. Dominique Monfery’s Eleanor’s Secret earned a special distinction.

The Annecy Cristal for best short film went to The Lost Thing from Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan, with Anita Killi’s Angry Manearning a special jury award.

The Jean-Luc Xiberras award for a first film went to Jean-Francois by Tom Haugomat and Bruno Mangyoku, while a special distinction ax aequo was given to Theodore Ushev’s Lipsett’s Diaries and Turgut Akacik’s Don’t Go.

The feature jury consisted of Manuela Schöbel-Lumb, Ari Folman and Tim Rice, while the shorts jury consisted of Sayoko Kinoshita, Patrice Leconte and John Musker.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary edition in 2010, screenings at the leading animation event included Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist, which opened the festival, Shrek Forever After, Universal’s Despicable Me directed by France’s Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud and animated in the country, and the latest Pixar short, Day & Night. Attendees included Jeffrey Katzenberg, Matt Groening and Aardman’s Nick Park.

Annecy also held making-of and work-in-progress sessions, with projects including Patrice Leconte’s animated musical The Suicide Shop. There were also recruitment sessions and conferences on themes including 3D TV and the competitiveness of European studios. There was a spotlight on Argentina and EuropaCorp and HP held an event to talk about the upcoming animation The Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart.

According to organisers there were 7,300 participants at the festival, representing an increase of 10%.

MIFA, Annecy’s 25-year-old market and trade fair, reported an attendence rise of 16%. Talking points at MIFA included how 3D stereoscopic projects were noticeably up year-on-year, as well as new opportunities offered by cross media. China was also an increased presence.

“A lot of people tell me that the broadcasters and distributors are more enthusiastic about the projects so it seems that the market is more dynamic,” MIFA head Mickael Marin told Screendaily. “You don’t really see a crisis. It’s not the atmosphere.”