A Tribute

Marguerite Abouet, Patron of the Mifa Campus 2021

Writer, scriptwriter and director, Marguerite Abouet was born in 1971, Abidjan. In 2005, she releases Aya: Life in Yop City 1, which wins the Prize for Best First Comic Book at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. This Ivorian saga illustrated by Clément Oubrerie, translated into fifteen languages, has more than 700 pages and depicts an authentic and lesser-known Africa. In 2010, with Mathieu Sapin she publishes the first volume of Akissi, a series for children inspired by her spicy childhood memories. This same year, she also publishes Bienvenue, the chronicle of a young Parisian girl that Singeon illustrates. Books follow one after the other and lead her to the audiovisual sector: she co-directs the animation film Aya of Yop City and directs C'est la vie !, a series for Senegalese TV.

Marguerite Abouet and her guests talk us through their artistic and professional career paths in animation around a discussion, to reveal their ties with Africa, and share their thoughts, convictions and advice on how to progress in the animation industry.

William Kentridge, the Festival’s Special Guest

We also have the immense honour to welcome among our speakers, as a special guest, the great William Kentridge, multidisciplinary artist whose animation work is the subject of a retrospective during the Annecy Festival.

Born in1955, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he lives and works, he is one of the major figures in contemporary art. His work Shadow Procession is waiting to be discovered in the Sellerie du haras d’Annecy during the Festival.

As part of the Mifa Campus, a conversation between the artist and the General Commissioner of the Africa2020 Season, N’Goné Fall is also proposed. Both know how to inspire and support numerous African and international artists. We would like to thank them for their time and precious exchanges that we can share with them online.

Mifa Animation Industry Award presented to Triggerfish Animation Studios

The Mifa Animation Industry Award is also the opportunity here to showcase the African animation industry.

"In this year of celebrating African animation, we wanted to extol the work of an African studio, a genuine trail-blazer of animation in its home country. Its journey in just a few years resulted in the production and shooting of series and feature films which have already earned a constellation of prizes. The studio has helped train talents in South Africa and throughout the African continent, structuring an industry to give all its professionals support. We are overjoyed to bestow this prize on Triggerfish Animation Studios. Congratulations to Stuart Forrest and his entire team!"

Véronique Encrenaz, Head of Mifa

Bruno Bozzetto Receives the Honorary Cristal

As part of the Annecy Festival’s 60^th anniversary and the rescreening of the short film An Award for Mr. Rossi, Marcel Jean presented the 2021 Honorary Cristal to Bruno Bozzetto.

"In 1960, Bruno Bozzetto was already present at Annecy with his film An Award for Mr. Rossi, and at the young age of 22 he had the opportunity to meet filmmakers in competition alongside him whose names are now legendary: Břetislav Pojar, Friz Freleng, John Halas, Dušan Vukotić, Norman McLaren, etc.

Winner of the Winsor McCay Award presented by the ASIFA-Hollywood in 1982, the Short Film Golden Bear award in Berlin for Mistertao in 1990, the Animafest Zagreb's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998, and Oscar-nominated in 1991 for Grasshoppers, Bruno Bozzetto duly became Italy’s most iconic animation filmmaker, his feature film Allegro non troppo rose to the rank of being an ultimate classic in the history of animation.

It is with great emotion that the Annecy International Animation Film Festival presents him with the Honorary Cristal as part of the event’s 60^th anniversary."

Marcel Jean
Artistic Director

After Jean-François Laguionie, Isao Takahata, Florence Miailhe, and Brad Bird, it’s Bruno Bozzetto’s turn to join the list of prestigious animation figures who have received the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s Honorary Cristal.