Annecy 2026 lineup unveils animation’s global range and power

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• What the selection reveals about animation today
• Feature competition: films to watch for Cristal contenders
• Contrechamp: the festival’s space for daring and nonfiction animation
• Cité de l’Animation: a permanent home for screenings and exhibits
• MIFA and the European Animation Summit: industry questions on the agenda
• Annecy Presents and Midnight Specials: crowd-pleasers and genre nights
• Practical details: festival dates and orientation

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival returns in 2026 with a lineup that reads like a map of global animation talent. Despite headlines about production slowdowns, the program is dense, diverse and dominated by French and Japanese entries. The choices promise awards, surprises and conversations about the future of the industry.

What the selection reveals about animation today

Artistic director Marcel Jean points out a lag between funding shocks and what appears on screens. Films shown were greenlit years ago. Still, the festival’s roster makes one thing clear: animation remains a global artform. Annecy’s official selection includes 44 feature films, with a heavy French presence and representation from 26 countries.

Asian production is particularly notable. Japan leads, but entries from South Korea, the Philippines and China reflect shifting ambitions. Chinese creators are aiming for broader, more relatable stories, according to Jean. The result is a program that spans personal dramas, political narratives, genre experiments and family-friendly adventures.

Feature competition: films to watch for Cristal contenders

The feature competition mixes established names and emerging voices. Below are the most talked-about entries, with a snapshot of each film’s premise and the reason it landed in the lineup.

• Viva Carmen! — Sébastien Laudenbach (France). A fresh animated take on a classic Spanish tale by a director with a track record at Annecy. Laudenbach’s previous work won festival prizes and national awards.
• Iron Boy — Louis Clichy (France, Belgium). From a former Pixar creative and Asterix co-director, this film blends rural French settings with nuanced tone and visual flair.
• Decorado — Alberto Vázquez (Spain, Portugal). A celebrated filmmaker returns with an offbeat fable about a rebellious mouse. Vázquez is known for strong festival runs and a Goya win.
• The Sunrise File — Rupert Wyatt, Émilie Phuong (France, Luxembourg). A morally complex dramatization of Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld’s work. It raises questions about justice and vengeance.
• In Waves — Phuong Mai Nguyen (France, Belgium). Adapted from A.J. Dungo’s graphic memoir, this is a romantic, bittersweet story about love and loss set in surfer culture.
• Lucy Lost — Olivier Clert (France). Based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel, this is a family-friendly, haunting tale of a girl living with strange visions in early 20th-century England.
• Nobody — Shui Yu (China). A crowd-winning Chinese film that follows a quartet of animal-demons. It mixes humor and emotion and has already won domestic awards.
• Tana — Ji Zhao, Ke Er Zhu (China). A contemporary story of a woman leaving Shanghai to care for her father in Inner Mongolia. Music and family ties are central.
• Tangles — Leah Nelson (Canada, U.S.). A moving portrait of a daughter who returns home to care for a mother with Alzheimer’s. Produced in Vancouver with Point Grey Pictures involved.
• The Violinist — Ervin Han, Raúl Garcia (Singapore, Spain, Italy). A multinational co-production delivering an operatic war story in classical terms, with bold visuals and dramatic pacing.
• We Are Aliens — Kohei Kadowaki (Japan, France). A Franco-Japanese co-production about a reunion between childhood friends after decades apart, continuing a fruitful France-Japan partnership.

Contrechamp: the festival’s space for daring and nonfiction animation

Contrechamp often offers risk-taking works. This year the section even opens with its own screening ahead of the festival. The films here range from animated documentaries to poetic historical dramas.

• 58th — Carl Joseph Papa (Philippines). An animated documentary revisiting the 2009 Maguindanao massacre. Papa returns to Annecy with a new nonfiction project.
• A New Dawn — Yoshitoshi Shinomiya (Japan, France). A painterly director with a background in major Japanese productions brings an intimate, acclaimed film from Berlinale.
• Blaise — Dimitri Planchon, Jean-Paul Guigue (France). An extension of a beloved TV series, this feature follows a withdrawn teenage protagonist into new territory.
• O filho da puta — Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Tania Anaya, Sávio Leite (Brazil). With four directors, this coming-of-age tale follows Ismael on a search for his father and the sea.
• Muyi and the Handsome General — Julien Chheng (France). Set in China, this La Cachette production centers on Mu Yi and a traveling theatre troupe that upends village life.
• Pelelui: Guernica of Paradise — Goro Kuji (Japan). Set in Micronesia during WWII, this film pairs deceptively gentle visuals with harsh wartime realities.
• Spacetime Chronicles — Stefano Bertelli (Italy). A DIY papercraft stop-motion that evokes surreal, Gondry-like dreamscapes and technical ingenuity.
• The Obsessed — Wataru Takahashi (Japan). A colorful, musical romantic comedy with a unique aesthetic that defies genre expectations in Japanese animation.
• The Orbit of Minor Satellites — Christopher Sullivan (Japan). A return for Chris Sullivan, blending live action and animation to probe the patient-psychiatrist relationship.
• Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope — Beñat Beitia, Elio Quiroga (Spain, Chile, Argentina). Set in 1939, this drama follows refugees aboard the Winnipeg, chartered by Pablo Neruda.
• Welcome to Dolly’s House — Seven Ych, Rady Fu, Tree Muta (Taiwan). A rotoscope fantasy about a scandal-hit influencer who enters a haunted mansion and faces her identity.

Cité de l’Animation: a permanent home for screenings and exhibits

Mickaël Marin, CEO of CITIA, describes the new Animation International Institute as a long-held dream realized. From June 19, the institute opens as a permanent venue for films, exhibitions and visiting artists.

Marin thanks the many financiers who supported the project. Major studios from France and the U.S. are partners, and the goal is to welcome both big teams and independent artists. The site aims to be a year-round hub for animation culture and industry activity.

MIFA and the European Animation Summit: industry questions on the agenda

Head of MIFA Véronique Encrenaz calls this a reflective year for animation. The sector is asking what comes next as traditional markets shift and events evolve.

MIFA will host a pre-opening day focused on private workshops, knowledge sharing and safe spaces. The new European Animation Summit will tackle challenges in funding, production models and distribution.

AI and private investment figure prominently in the program. Organizers want to interrogate technological shifts and new financing routes while creating spaces for frank industry debate.

Annecy Presents and Midnight Specials: crowd-pleasers and genre nights

The Annecy Presents strand aims at wider audiences. It includes family-oriented fare and mainstream anime. The section competes for an audience award with 15 contenders.

• Julian — Louise Bagnall (Ireland). A long-awaited premiere from Cartoon Saloon.
• Brave Cat — Gabriel Osorio (Chile).
• Born in the Jungle — Edmunds Jansons (Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic).
• Dante — Linda Hambäck (Sweden, Denmark, Norway).
• On the Other Side of the World — Yusuke Hirota (Japan).
• Dudley and the Invasion of the Space Slugs — Cherifa Bakhti (Luxembourg, Belgium, France, India).
• The Ribbon Hero — Yuki Igarashi (Japan).
• The Girl in the Clouds — Philippe Riche (France, Belgium).
• The Legend of the Golden Buffalo — Tranh Lam Tung (Vietnam).
• The Last Whale Singer — Reza Memari (Germany, Czech Republic, Canada).
• Monster Mia — Verena Fels (Austria, Spain, Germany).
• Samurai Ballerina — Goro Tanigushi (Japan).
• The Keeper of the Camphor Tree — Tomohiko Ito (Japan).
• Yugly — Yanis Belaid, Jérémie Degruson (Belgium). This Belgian film opens the Annecy Presents strand.

When midnight falls, the program shifts to darker, edgier fare. The Midnight Specials serve fans who crave genre and boundary-pushing animation.

• Company Sports Day — Yong-Seon Lee (South Korea).
• Gregor — Manu Gomez (Belgium, France).
• Sekiro: No Defeat — Kenichi Kutsuna (Japan).
• Soul Shift — Christian Franz Schmidt (Germany).
• Zsazsa Zaturnnah — Avid Liongoren (Philippines, France).

Practical details: festival dates and orientation

The 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival runs June 21-27. The program spans competitive feature sections, Contrechamp, Annecy Presents, Midnight Specials and a rich slate of shorts and TV works.