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Kanini & Kanino, Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, Invisible © 2018 Studio Ponoc

5th Mar 2019

  Japanese Animation is in the Spotlight 

After announcing that Japanese animation will be in the spotlight for the 2019 edition, Annecy Festival reveals a few of the programme highlights.

This year the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market chose to showcase Japanese animation. After the unveiling of the poster designed by Charlotte Gastaut, it is time to take a glimpse at some of the programme.
 

Yôichi Kotabe: guest of honour

KOTABE Yôichi – Photo : NAMIKI Takashi

He is one of his country’s most brilliant animators, a privileged witness to the golden age of cartoons, sidekick to Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki as early as Prince of the Sun, the Great Adventure of Horus, and director of the animation Panda! Go Panda! and Chie, the Brat, as well as the Heidi and Marco series.
 

Yoshiaki Nishimura & Koji Yamamura: jury members

NISHIMURA Yoshiaki, YAMAMURA Koji – Photos : DR

These two eminent Japanese figures will be jury members at the Festival. The first is founder, CEO and producer at Studio Ponoc, and the second is director for Yamamura Animation, Inc. Both have had one or several of their films nominated at the Oscars.
 

Screening of Modest Heroes: French premiere

A screening event will be devoted to Modest Heroes, a collection of three short films from Studio Ponoc: Kanini & Kanino (written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi), Life Ain’t Gonna Lose (written and directed by Yoshiyuki Momose) and Invisible (written and directed by Akihiko Yamashita).
 

Venus Wars: a tribute to a legendary film

A 30th anniversary screening of Venus Wars, by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, a film that is an integral part of Japanese animation history.

Also:
An exhibition, programmes that include historical shorts and classic films, a Japanese delegation and a 150m² stand at Mifa.

"In 1999 the Annecy Festival honored Japanese animation, making this cinematography the first to receive such a distinction. At that time the great authors of Japanese animation were just emerging to the European audience and the craze for Anime was gaining popularity with young moviegoers.
20-years later Annecy is placing Japanese animation in the spotlight once again. This is because there is still so much to say about this cinematography where vitality has never waned, and despite the enormous audience it sustains there are still many hidden treasures: there are several works that have rarely been shown, entirely or in part, in the West, and we long to share these discoveries to a much wider audience.

With our gathered expertise and close affiliations with several prominent players in the Japanese animation industry, Annecy 2019 will provide an unprecedented view of this complex cinematography. One that has marked international contemporary cinema in more ways than one. So, we invite you to this remarkable rendezvous to discover a whole new side to Japanese animation!"

Marcel Jean, Artistic Director
     

Japanese animation invites you to Annecy from 10th to 15th June 2019!

For more information, check out our webpage Zoom 2019 or the related press release.