Annecy Festival begins with Portuguese animated cinema in the competition

ANDamong them is the feature film “Decorado”, by Alberto Vázquez, in a coproduction of Spain with the Portuguese Sardinha in Lata, awarded this year in the Spanish Goya and that part of Arnold’s story “a middle-aged man who goes through an existential crisis and relationship”.

In the short films competition are the Portuguese co-productions “Filha da Água”, by Sandra Desmazières, and “Virgen Fandango”, by Marcy Page.

“Daughter of Water”, a Portuguese-French production distinguished this year in the French awards Caesares, and that “proposes a deeply sensory experience, where time, water and memory intertwine in a visual universe of great delicacy”, explains the Portuguese producer Animals AVPL.

“Virgin Fandango” is a coproduction between Portugal (Ciclope Filmes) and Canada that, from a technical and artistic point of view, stands out for the use of 12 thousand Portuguese tiles hand painted and later animated in ‘stop motion’.

The short film “Because Today is Saturday”, by Alice Eça Guimarães, produced by Animals AVPL with France and Spain, is in the competition Perspectives, reaching Annecy with a resume of more than two dozen awards.

The film is starring a woman who seeks to have time on a Saturday, supposedly for rest, but is constantly interrupted by household chores and family responsibilities.

Annecy’s programming also includes “XYZ”, director Alexandre Alagôa; a short promotional production of the Monster Festival of 2025, Vasco Casula; and “A body without horse?” by Lara Fuke, with minority Portuguese coproduction, in the selection of school films.

“Lucid”, Vier’s interactive short film produced by Cola Animation, will be in Annecy in the program dedicated to virtual reality.

Alongside the cinema exhibitions, the Annecy festival also hosts presentation sessions to the animation works industry still in production or project. There will be about a dozen proposals involving Portugal, namely the two feature films “The devil’s couple”, by Jerome Rocha and João Miguel Real, and “Amazofuturism” (Portugal and Brazil), by Isabella Papa and Baboo Matsusaki.

This year, among the guests for the Annecy juries are Abi Feijó and Fernando Galrito, two names for several decades linked to the production, realization and programming of animation cinema in Portugal.

The festival, considered one of the most important for animation in cinema and television, begins days after the International City of Animation Cinema, a space in Annecy dedicated to animation, with exhibitions, residences and cinema cycles.

The Annecy Animation Film Festival, which in 2024 awarded the highest prize to the short film “Percebes”, by Laura Gonçalves and Alexandra Ramires, ends on June 27.