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AST year at the world’s most prestigious animation festival — the Annecy International Animation Festival — South Africans made their mark by winning three major awards.
Now the local industry is holding its collective breath to see which films are selected for this year’s festival, which is being held from June 12 to 17 in the small alpine town in France.
Dianne Makings, festival director of the Cape Town International Animation Festival which took place in March, said local animators were “looking forward to promoting South Africa again to a global audience” while at Annecy.
Many South African studios are working with global teams to produce world-class entries.
Mindseye Creative is working on F is for Family, while Triggerfish Animation is continuing its collaboration with Magic Light Pictures on the Julia Donaldson adaptation of The Highway Rat.
Makings says other projects to keep an eye on include Hatch from Zeropoint Studios, and Postcards of Molitia from Tulips and Chimneys.
Interesting work in development includes:
being developed by Sanusi Chronicles. This breaks down the wall of Eurocentric content by using local characters to tell tales from African history.
a web series in development also by Zeropoint Studio. This series takes a satirical but affectionate look at the daily escapades of two gay squirrels, Neil and Artel, in their search for success, love and happiness.
from Bugbox animation, which has benefited from a residency in France since last year’s Annecy festival. Set in Tubatuba Town, home to a “rainbow nation” of animal friends, this tells the story of Musi, a jolly hippo, and Cuckoo, a whacky chicken, who help everyone in their community, by working together.
by Matthew Torode, who is currently working in collaboration with a French director. Based on the children’s book by the same name, it looks at the absurdity of war by revealing a broader and more peaceful context.
by Daniel Clarke, who has launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign to finance his project. It is a fantasy-adventure graphic novel inspired by the mythology and history surrounding the construction of one of the largest dams ever built in southern Africa.