Annecy Reveals 20 Films in Feature Lineup, ‘Red Turtle’ Is Opening Night Film

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:

Feature Films (Competition)

• 25 April by Leanne Pooley and Matthew Metcalfe (New Zealand)

• Snowtime! (Aka: Cleo) by Jean-François Pouliot and François Brisson (Canada)
• La Jeune Fille sans mains by Sébastien Laudenbach (France)
• My Life as a Courgette by Claude Barras (Switzerland, France)
• Nuts! by Penny Lane (USA)
• Psiconautas, the Forgotten Children by Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vazquez (Spain)
• Seoul Station by Yeon Sang-ho (South Korea)
• Sheep and Wolves by Maxim Volkov (Russia)
• Window Horses by Ann Marie Fleming (Canada)

Feature Films (Out of Competition)

• Bad Cat by Mehmet Kurtulus and Ayse Unal (Turkey)
• Bilal by Ayman Jamal and Khurram H. Alavi (United Arab Emirates)
• Capture the Flag by Enrique Gato Borregan (Spain)
• Gamba by Tomohiro Kawamura, Komori Yoshihiro and Ogawa Yoichi (Japan)
• Kai by Sung-gang Lee (South Korea)
• Manang Biring by Carl Joseph Papa (Philippines)
• Monkey King: Hero is Back by Tian Xiaopeng (China)
• Pat & Mat, the Film by Marek Benes (Czech Republic)
• Regular Show: The Movie by JG Quintel (USA)
• The Anthem of the Heart by Tatsuyuki Nagai (Japan)
• Un rêve solaire by Patrick Bokanowski (France)

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 (Sébastien 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.