Annecy 2022: 10 Shorts Not To Miss From Annecy

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix will produce the new Japanese film “In Love and Deep Water,” a suspenseful romantic comedy written by acclaimed creator Sakamoto Yuji.The story is set on a massive luxury cruise ship. While at sea, the loyal butler Suguru, and a mysterious woman named Chizuru cross paths as they try to uncover a murder-mystery that occurs on the ship.

Zara and Mike Tindall looked every inch the style power couple as they arrived at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club on Tuesday for day two of Wimbledon.MORE: Andy Murray's wife Kim makes touching gesture towards Dame Deborah James at WimbledonThe Queen's granddaughter was aptly dressed in a white shirt dress and navy-coloured wedge shoes which were teamed with a black leather crossbody and gold earrings.WATCH: The royal family at Wimbledon over the yearsNot to be outdone in the style stakes, her rugby star husband Mike put on a dapper display in a cream jacket and dark trousers combination, teamed with grey suede shoes and a stripy tie.READ: Rafael Nadal addresses wife Mery Perello's pregnancy for the first timeSEE: The Wimbledon wives and partners we'll see courtside this yearThe royal couple will no doubt take their seats at Centre Court to watch the likes of Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams make their debut at this year's Championships.The two tennis stars have both overcome injuries to make it to the All England Club in a bid to land another grand slam.  Mike and Zara Tindall on day two of WimbledonSerena, 40, is making her comeback after limping out of last year's first-round match in tears due to a leg injury.

Former Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera has given his take on the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi debate – and has sided with his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe action in upcoming mystery thriller “The Reunion,” starring “Harrow’s” Ioan Gruffudd, centers on three characters in two time-zones, 25 years apart, but the emotions and personalities of the characters are consistent, the show’s British director Bill Eagles explained at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival Sunday.The English-language show, produced by Sydney Gallonde at Make It Happen Studio and co-produced by MGM Intl. TV Productions and broadcaster France Televisions, is based on Guillaume Musso’s bestselling novel “La Jeune fille et la nuit.”The story opens in the present day, at a reunion at an international school in the south of France where three former friends reconnect.

Directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre take home the top prize for their animated film Little Nicholas–Happy as Can Be at the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. 

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticBelgian graphic artist Laurent Durieux has designed some of the most gorgeous movie posters of the past decade, working not for the studios but in custom-published runs just for collectors and fans. You’ve probably seen his work: intricate, finely tooled reimaginings of classic films — “Jaws,” “King Kong” and “Casablanca,” to name a few — produced as limited-edition screenprints by companies such as Mondo, resold on eBay for thousands of dollars.Durieux’s retrofuturist designs have appeared on everything from bottles of Francis Ford Coppola’s wine to the cover of The New Yorker.

Lise Pedersen France’s animation industry is thriving, according to the latest figures published by the country’s national film center, the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée), during the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.The country’s animation production levels in 2021 were the second highest ever, at 357 hours of programs, surpassed only by 2006, which reported 395 hours.French animation, whose long-established reputation of excellence and know-how has been a draw for international co-productions for decades, has proved increasingly attractive to international co-productions thanks to its generous tax rebate for international projects, which was revised upwards from 20% to 30% of spend in 2015.

EXCLUSIVE: London and Paris-based production and sales company Film Constellation has inked pre-sales on family adventure animation The Last Dinosaur following its Cannes market launch.

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of us revealing their Katy Perry animated musical Melody, The Trial Of The Chicago 7 and The Pale Blue Eye outfit Cross Creek Pictures and animation specialist Zag have set an agreement to develop and produce a slate of ten animated, live-action and hybrid format features, the majority of which will be musicals.

Ben Croll Inaugurated in 2021, the Annecy Residency program takes three selected projects on a six-month journey, beginning with a three-month script workshop before moving to Annecy’s Papeteries Image Factory for a similar bout of tailored mentorships and visual experimentation. At the end, the filmmakers launch their development titles at the MIFA market.When directors Pierre Le Couviour and Amine El Ouarti brought their residency-honed title “Le Cœur à danser” to last year’s MIFA, they very quickly found an eager partner in French studio Vivement Lundi, teaming with the Rennes-based production to develop the project even further.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAnnecy this year is all about innovation, in animation  style – seen in the villain of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” unveiled on Monday – in Europe’s push into adult animation, and even in new ways of connecting with audiences, as DreamWorks Animation has demonstrated in a joyous and packed open air screening of “The Bad Guys.”A tradition at Annecy, the lakeside outdoor events usually serve to introduce new generations of Annecy kids and families to modern animation classics. Under Marcel Jean’s artistic direction, these are becoming ever more recent.

Emilio Mayorga “Unicorn Wars” (Alberto Vázquez)Alberto Vázquez, the director of “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” a Gkids pickup for North America, delivers an apocalyptic anti-war parable narrating the ancestral war between teddy bears bigots and environmentalist unicorns with irreverent visual exuberance and moments of real horror.WIP’S“They Shot the Piano Player” (Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal)Trueba and Mariscal’s much-awaited new collaboration after their 2012 Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita” is a co-production with France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Peru. Sold by Film Constellation, project threads “music, politics and documentary as well as fiction, thriller and memory,” Trueba has said.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFortified by top executive appointments, London-based Academy Award winning Passion Pictures is driving powerfully into long-form animation.It has already produced episodes of cult Netflix series “Love, Death & Robots” – “Life Hatch” and “Ice,” which scored three Emmy Awards – as well as Netflix’s “Headspace,” Disney’s “101 Dalmatian Street” and Nickelodeon’s “Lego City Adventures.”Building on that, Passion will unveil two new projects, “Greetings from the Apocalypse” and “Love,” at the MIFA TV Series & Specials Pitches on June 16. Passion is the only company to have two titles in this category which currently packs a lot of the excitement and innovation at the cutting edge of current animation.

Emiliano Granada In what promises to be an incredibly busy Annecy, Brinca Animation Studio will premiere its animated feature “Home is Somewhere Else” at the French animation meet’s Contrechamp section, its major sidebar.Co-directed by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, the Mexican animated feature reflects on the lives of the many undocumented Hispanic immigrants arriving in the U.S.; less interested in simply stating the immense difficulty that this means for them and keener on observing with care the emotional consequences that it entails. Built around the voices of real characters and their families, the toon’s varied styles become deeply intimate.

Martin Dale ContributorThe Annecy Intl. Animation Festival is returning to a full-fledged in-person event in 2022, expecting more than 10,000 attendees, from more than 90 countries June 13-18.“The world’s animation community will be back in Annecy — the key meeting place for the industry and artists,” says fest director Mickaël Marin, beaming.The Annecy team has striven to maintain connections and momentum within the animation community during the pandemic, through the 2020 online edition and 2021 hybrid fest, complemented by yearround masterclasses, professional meetings, seminars and dedicated trips, including recent trips to Nigeria, Israel and Brazil.The fest also collaborates with events such as Ventana Sur in Argentina and the Animation Day in Cannes.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentNickelodeon is launching its Intergalactic Shorts Program 2.0 which opens its search for new and diverse creators from across the globe, Ramsey Naito, president of Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation, announced Monday.The Intergalactic Shorts Program 2.0 will focus on new voices and nurturing their vision for original comedy-drive content with an eye to representation, Naito added.The 2.0 Program will be overseen by Nickelodeon executives Daniel Wineman and Chris Rose.News of the new 2.0 Program comes as Nickelodeon gears up to bow “Rock, Paper, Scissors,”  the first finalised short and series greenlit from the 2019 inaugural program.“Rock, Paper, Scissors” will make its worldwide short debut at France’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival during a Nickelodeon Animation presentation on Thursday, June 16.