Annecy International Animation Film Festival

Born from Cannes

The Annecy festival grew out of animation days held during the Cannes Film Festival in the 1950s. In 1960 the event moved to Annecy, a lakeside town in the French Alps, and became a festival entirely dedicated to animation. It was held every two years at first and became annual in 1998.

A festival for every kind of animation

Annecy shows feature films, short films, student films, television series and commissioned works such as music videos and advertising, in official competitions with separate juries. Films come from every continent, and the festival is known for discovering new talent and for celebrating independent and experimental work alongside big studio premieres.

The Cristals

The top award in each competition is called a Cristal, a crystal trophy. Winning the Cristal for a feature film is a major honor, and several winners have later been nominated for Oscars. There are also audience awards and prizes for student and television work.

MIFA, the market

Alongside the festival runs MIFA, an international market where studios, producers, broadcasters and streaming services meet to buy and sell projects and find partners. Students and young artists come to meet recruiters, show portfolios and attend talks with famous directors, making Annecy an important place for careers.

Paper planes and lakeside screens

Annecy has fun traditions. Before screenings, audiences throw paper planes toward the stage and cheer when one lands, and the crowd often shouts together at the festival logo animation. In the evenings, free open-air screenings are held on a giant screen by the lake. Compare it with other events in our animation festivals and awards guide.

Visiting tips

Accreditation for professionals, students and the public is sold in advance, and screening seats are booked online, so plan before June. The festival centre is the Bonlieu building near the lake, with other cinemas nearby. Even without a pass, the open-air screenings by the lake, exhibitions and the busy town make it a fun trip for animation fans, and the alpine scenery around the lake is spectacular.

Many famous animated features have screened at Annecy before their wider release, and studios often use the festival to show work-in-progress footage of upcoming films to an enthusiastic crowd. For students, the graduation film competition is a chance to be seen by studios from around the world, and recruiters from big companies attend looking for new talent.

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