Annecy Festival Residency: The 2026 Mentors
A "tailor-made" mentorship jointly developed with the projects' teams. Providing guidance is a major focus of the Annecy Festival Residency since its conception.
The purpose of mentoring, which takes the form of a diagnosis and overview of the work, is to help authors with their artistic approach, whether in terms of writing or graphic development, both of which are inextricably connected. Mentors are chosen by mutual agreement, based on the project's style and needs identified during the Residency.
The initial stage of the process provides an opportunity to take a step back from the film's storyline and reflect on the film's visual development. It is a kind of checkpoint for the authors to reflect on and confirm the elements that are ready to be explored graphically. This mentoring takes place remotely before the artists arrive in Annecy.
The second stage of assistance is key. This is a real catalyst that boosts the creative process and encourages the authors to think carefully about their directing, explore new possibilities, challenge their limits and allow themselves this precious phase of experimentation that is invaluable in animation. This can involve anything from simple graphic research to developing a storyboard, even producing an animatic or several animation tests.
Check out the mentors who will be assisting the authors during this Residency.
"All the Heaven's Doors" Mentors
"Condenaditos" Mentor
Céline Sciamma
Screenwriter, Director – France
Assisting the project All the Heaven's Doors
Céline Sciamma was born in 1978 in Cergy-Pontoise, France.
After obtaining a master's degree in French literature, she studied screenwriting at La Fémis, the National Institute for Professional Image and Sound, in Paris. It was here that she wrote Water Lilies, which would be her feature directorial debut in 2007, and selected at the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard).
Her 2011 film Tomboy won numerous accolades, including the Teddy Awards Jury Award at the Berlinale. In 2014, her film Girlhood premiered during Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.
Two years later, she scripted My Life as a Courgette, an animation feature film directed by Claude Barras that attracted considerable audience and critical acclaim, won numerous awards and received an Oscar nomination.
Sciamma returned to directing in 2019 with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, earning her the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes. In 2021, she directed Petite maman, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2023 she produced and directed her first short film This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet about poet Patrizia Cavalli's house.
Isabel Herguera
Director and Producer — Spain
Assisting the project All the Heaven's Doors
Herguera studied fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany and obtained a master's degree in animation at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Since graduating, she directed and produced several animated short films, including Spain Loves You (1987), La gallina ciega (2005), Ámár (2010), Under the Pillow (2012), Winter Love (2015), Kutxa Beltza (2016) and The Illustrated Woman (2023).
She has travelled throughout India since 2005, drawing, teaching animation and collaborating with women's communities, students and artists. These experiences subsequently became the source of inspiration for her first feature film, Sultana's Dream (2023), which premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and later received several international awards, including the Grand Prix at Animafest Zagreb and the Contrechamp Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Herguera has been working as Professor of Animation at the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM) in Germany since 2017.
Aurel
Director, Political Cartoonist and Comic Book Author – France
Assisting the project Condenaditos
Aurel, whose real name is Aurélien Froment, is a French political cartoonist, comic book author and film director, born in 1980 in Ardèche. He regularly contributes to Le Canard enchaîné, for which he has been drawing since 2015, and has also published numerous books combining current affairs cartoons, reportage and documentary comics.
In 2020, he directed Josep, his first feature-length animation film, which recounts the story of the Catalan cartoonist Josep Bartolí and his experiences during La Retirada and in the French camps. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and in particular won the César Award for Best Animated Film as well as the European Film Award for Best Animated Film.
Amélie Harrault
Director and Screenwriter – France
Assisting the project Todo viene del agua
Amélie Harrault studied art and visual communication at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Toulouse, then animation at the EMCA, the Angoulême school of animation.
Her debut short film Kiki of Montparnasse won the César Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2014 and the Émile Reynaud Prize in 2013; it was shortlisted for the 2014 Oscars and selected for over 250 festivals worldwide. Amélie co-directed the documentary series The Adventurers of Modern Art (6x52', 2015, ARTE and SILEX FILMS), adapted from Dan Franck's trilogy Bohèmes, Libertad! and Minuit, which have won multiple awards and been broadcast in over 35 countries across the world. She is both co-writer with Céline Ronté and Valérie Loiseleux and director of the current animation documentary series L'Armée des romantiques (4x52', 2024, ARTE and SILEX FILMS).
Jean-Louis Milesi
Screenwriter, Author, Director – France
Assisting the project Todo viene del agua
Jean-Louis Milesi was born in Italy and arrived in France at two-months old.
After finishing nursery school, he dropped out of university after just a few weeks and moved to Paris to "try his hand at filmmaking" and wrote 10 film scripts for Robert Guédiguian (from Money Makes Happiness, The Snows of Kilimanjaro to Marius and Jeannette). He directed several films including Lino (Special Jury Prize at Tokyo) and Fragile (Special Jury Mention at Luchon).
After moving to California with his family, the trembling earth there shook him to the core. He ended all collaboration with Guédiguian, wrote the animation screenplay Josep with Aurel, as well as his first novel, Clint Eastwood's Boots (Éditions Le Passage, 2017). Back in France, his collaboration with Aurel became stronger, and he wrote his new animation film, Désert (scheduled for release in 2028).
Meanwhile, he continued his literary career:
- Au loin, quelques chevaux, deux plumes (Presses de la Cité, 2023 and Pocket, 2024)
- Flamboyante Zola (Presses de la Cité, 2025 and Pocket, 2026).
He was awarded the SACD's Henri Jeanson Prize (Marius and Jeannette).
And the Best Screenplay Award at:
- Athens International Film Festival (Josep)
- Lumières de la presse internationale (The Snows of Kilimanjaro)
- San Sebastian Film Festival (Where the Heart Is)
- Love International Film Festival Mons (The Town Is Quiet)
He was nominated in the Best Screenplay category at:
- César Awards (Marius and Jeannette)
- European Film Awards (The Town Is Quiet)