Jun 24, 2019

Annecy Trailer with Japanese Theme in Gobelins Weave Comes Online

As is now customary, second-year students at the prestigious Gobelins School of Animation in Paris were asked to create a series of trailers for this year's Annecy Film Festival. Since the festival will be spotlighting Japan, the students created five trailers, one for each weekday of the festival, on the theme of Japan. These films, which were screened prior to the Annecy Film Festival, can now be viewed at.

The shorts, in various retro 2D styles, are full of playful nods to Japanese pop culture. Akira Kurosawa appears in “Battlefield” and Kyu Sakamoto appears in “A Taste of Tokyo. Can you spot a cameo appearance by Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli? The soundtrack was composed by students at the Conservatoire Paul Ducasse in Paris. Full credits for the short film can be found on the Gobelins website.

The ties between Gobelins and Japan will be further strengthened. Annecy announced a partnership with Netflix, whereby one graduate per year will produce an original Netflix animated film in Japan. The first graduate of this fellowship is Claire Matz.