News

Ghost Cat Anzu, The Colors Within, More Anime Compete at Annecy (Updated)

This year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced on Thursday the films screening in competition at the event. The official selection for Feature Films includes:

• Ghost Cat Anzu — Shinei Animation and France's Miyu Productions' 2D-animated film
• The Colors Within (Kimi no Iro) — a new anime feature film by Science SARU and director Naoko Yamada
• Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Madoigwa no Totto-chan) — Shinei Animation's anime film of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's autobiographical memoir
• The Imaginary — Studio Ponoc's anime film of A.F. Harrold and Emily Gravett's novel

This will be the world premiere for The Colors Within.

The Birth of Kitarō: The Mystery of Gegege (Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo) anime film is competing in the Feature Films Contrechamp category.

Pokémon Concierge, the latest stop-motion animated series for the Pokémon franchise, is competing in the TV Films category for "Episode 2: What's on Your Mind." The anime of Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata's Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Zom 100: Zombie ni Naru Made ni Shitai 100 no Koto) manga is competing in the same category with its first episode "Akira of the Dead."

Akihito Izuhara's "Kawauso" and "Miserable Miracle" — a joint-production between studios from Japan, France, and Canada — are competing in the Short Films category. Masataka Kihara's "Yapolaponky" and Lindong Chen's "Return" are competing in the Graduation Films category.

Update: Oscar-nominated director Koji Yamamura's short "My Inner Ear Quartet" is competing in the VR Works category.

The Detective Conan: Hyakuman Doru no Michishirube (Case Closed: The Million-dollar Pentagram) film, the anime film of Akira Toriyama's SAND LAND manga, and Give It All — the theatrical anime of Yoshiko Shikimura's Ganbatte Ikimasshoi novel — are all screening out of competition at the event.

Transformers One — the new animated film prequel to the Transformers franchise — and Ultraman: Rising are screening out of competition. The upcoming Ultraman CG animated feature film from Netflix and Tsuburaya Productions will have its world premiere at Annecy on June 12, ahead of its June 14 streaming debut.

This year's Annecy will take place from June 9-15 in the French town of the same name. Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival.

Source: Annecy