Swiss animated film will be well represented at the Annecy International Festival, from June 21 to 27, with six works selected. Several French-speaking and Ticino residents such as Georges Schwizgebel, Marcel Barelli and Gilles Jobin will be there.
In the official competition, Geneva director Georges Schwizgebel – “the great master of Swiss animated cinema”, according to Christian Gasser, journalist, curator and teacher of animated cinema at the Lucerne High School – will present “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, his latest film. This RTS co-production is a free and pictorial adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel. Faithful to his style in painted animation, he continues here a work exploring time, material and the transformation of images.
The same section will host the world premiere of “Cartoon Physics”, a co-production between France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, supported on the Swiss side by Hélium Films and RTS. The stop-motion film by American duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter adapts a poem by Nick Flynn and explores, through the mother-daughter relationship, the fragility of family ties and memory.
Film réalisé à Lausanne
In the Young Audiences section, three Swiss short films are selected. Antonin Niclass from Lausanne presents “Vers la forêt”, a stop-motion film set in an animation workshop where puppets come to life. The film, produced by Milos Films, is made in Lausanne. The Genevan Zoltán Horváth signs “Cosmonaut”, an animated fiction around an intimate space journey, while the short film by the German Lena von Döhren, based in Lucerne, “Bats & Bugs”, selected for the last Berlinale, completes the selection.
In the Off-Limits section, dedicated to experimental forms, the diploma film “Symbionts” by the Swiss-based Dutch director Quirijn Dees, trained at the University of Lucerne – Design Film Art, offers a sensory reflection on the symbiotic relationships between bodies and environment.
Projects in development
The festival also highlights several projects in development. “Ogresse”, a feature-length animated film inspired by tales and oral histories, is directed by Belgian director Lia Bertels and American singer and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant. The project, in co-production, involves Switzerland via Hélium Films and RTS.
“Séraphine”, by the French Sarah Van Den Boom, also brings together Nadasdy Film and RTS in a co-production. The film offers an intimate fable around memory and loss. The immersive project “Hide & Seek” by Swiss director Fabienne Giezendanner, based in Geneva, explores the boundaries between video games and interactive cinema.
At the crossroads of dance and digital arts
On the professional market, the Mifa Pitches will highlight two other Swiss projects: “Hermien” by Ticino director Marcel Barelli, known for his films focusing on the relationship between humans and nature, and “Marta Becket’s Death Valley” by Geneva choreographer Gilles Jobin, an immersive project at the crossroads of dance and the arts digital.
Finally, two Swiss projects will participate in the French-speaking co-production luncheon. Geneva producer Sereina Gabathuler (Roundabout Film) will defend the project “Amada Libertad” by Celina Escher, an animated documentary, centered on a woman confronted with incarceration and separation from her family and producer Clémence Pun (Hélium Films, Geneva) She will present “Goodbye Badger”, a television project aimed at young audiences.
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