Apr 26, 2016

Annecy reveals 20 films in the feature-length lineup, "Red Turtle" is opening night movies

The Red Turtle will be the opening night film of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, organizers announced today. The hotly anticipated directorial debut of Michael Dudok de Wit, which was co-produced with Studio Ghibli, will have its world premiere next month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Annecy also unveiled its feature film slate. Nine films have been selected for competition, with an additional eleven features selected for out of competition screening. Here's the full list:

Of note, we're seeing an increase in films from countries that traditionally have not been known for animated feature production, including New Zealand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Philippines.

Diverse types of animated features are represented too; the competition slate includes two documentaries (Leanne Pooley and Matthew Metcalfe's 25 April, Penny Lane's Nuts!) as well as films with distinctively personal approaches to filmmaking (Sebastien Laudenbach's La Jeune Fille sans mains, Ann Marie Fleming's Window Horses).

One of the most intriguing films in the line-up is Seoul Station (pictured at top) by South Korea's Yeon Sang-ho, who has made a name for himself with his previous features The King of Pigs and The Fake. Yeon has described Seoul Station as “a kind of fable disguised as a genre film,” with the genre being zombie-horror. The hand-drawn film was produced for less than $600,000, and Yeon has already written a sequel, Busan-Bound, that he hopes will become his live-action directorial debut.

Watch a clip from Seoul Station below:

Annecy will take place between June 13-18 in Annecy, France.