Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’ and ‘The Little Prince’ Will Premiere at Cannes

By Darryn King | 04/17/2015 3:12 pm | 2 Comments

The lineup for the 68th Cannes Film Festival—including two animated feature film world premieres, two animated short films and four animated student films—has been announced. The festival will take place in Cannes, France, between May 13–24.

Screening out of competition, director Mark Osborne’s Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) and, confirming many weeks of speculation, Pixar’s Inside Out will enjoy their world premieres along the Croisette. It will be the second festival appearance for both Inside Out director Pete Docter, whose Up opened the festival in 2009, and Osborne, whose Kung Fu Panda screened out of competition in 2008.

Cannes has been a big champion of animated films under festival director Thierry Frémaux. Shrek was screened in competition at the Festival in 2001, the first American animated film to do so since Peter Pan in 1953. “Here we are, sitting in tuxedos and evening gowns, wearing borrowed jewels, and everyone’s watching Shrek take a poot in the water,” recalled Shrek co-director Vicky Jenson.

In 2004, Shrek 2 was similarly selected—the first time both a film and its sequel have been screened in competition at Cannes—and DreamWorks has been a fixture at Cannes ever since. Most recently, How to Train Your Dragon screened out of competition in 2014, Frémaux calling it “a way to celebrate 20 years of DreamWorks.”

Elsewhere, the Festival has announced its lineup for the short film and student film (or Cinéfondation) competitions, with six animated films overall, listed below with imagery, trailers or in their entirety according to availability. The films will compete in these respective categories alongside their live-action counterparts. Cannes received over 4,550 short film entries this year from over 100 countries.