Annecy Residency 2024: Post-Impressionist Coming-of-Age, VR Boosted War Drama, and Mexican Fantasy Noir

variety.com:

Ben Croll Now wrapping its fourth edition, the Annecy Animation Festival’s artistic residency program shepherds selected titles on a development odyssey, hosting filmmakers for a three-month stint at Annecy’s Papeteries Image Factory for tailored, individual mentoring sessions related to screenwriting and graphic development.

The program offers those most precious gifts all – time to explore and grounds to experiment. Once done, the filmmakers can bring their projects to market, while the festival never lets past laureates fall too far out of sight.

A graduate of the residency’s inaugural edition in 2021, director Upamanyu Bhattacharyya later brought his feature “Heirloom” to Annecy’s Cannes showcase in 2023 and will launch production this very month. “We hope the film will be advanced enough for a WIP screening next year,” says Annecy Residency coordinator Géraldine Baché. “And then, of course, for a festival premiere in 2027!” There are the three new titles Annecy hopes to accompany in a similar manner in the years to come. “Le Cabanon de l’oncle Jo” Adapted from a children’s novel by Brigitte Smadja, “Le cabanon de l’oncle Jo” (“Uncle Jo’s Cabin”) follows a 9-year-old émigré slowly rebuilding her life in the outskirts of Paris.

Living in cramped quarters of a low-income high-rise after fleeing the 1960s uprisings in Tunisia, young Lily starts a project of urban renewal, planting a garden in an abandoned courtyard to bring her new surroundings the colors of the world she left behind.